Bridge Project

The staff have worked hard to help the kids focus their attention.....critical for literacy. This, as we know is a challenge for the best of us in this electronic, multi.tasking world! Discipline is calm, predictable and firm but gentle. When the kind start to get too excited, the teacher tells them to give themselves a hug and make a bubble..which means their hands are wrapped around their chests and their cheeks are puffed out and lips pressed together, I.e. No talking. There are little rewards for hand-raising and good answers. Warnings are issued without voices ever being raised. And the kids do their work and they are learning; this outcome-focused program tests reading level at least twice each year. Not that the kids aren't going to be kids. One boy leaped out of his seat to slam his book against the wall, killing a spider the size of a Buick. Another girl finished every one of her brother's sentences by saying "he's lying." There was talking and running. But less than I would have thought possible; these teachers really know their stuff. The kids are slowly building their own library of books (some hundreds of pages long), answering questions about content (even after deliberate changes of subject), collecting mechanical pencils and plastic lizards. One telling moment.... Some of the boys gathered around Tom and were joking about Father's Day. Romeo, who had been quiet, distant, avoiding eye contact, got the most animated look we would see on his face all day and said (jokingly?) no, you're MY.dad." there were such moments. In fact, at one point I heard one of the littler girls say "and the he came back with a really big knife and pointed it at her and she was so scared!" I wondered if I should call the police...or was it a joke? No, she had stayed up til midnight the night before watching Scream 4! So much for making snap judgments about kids just because they live in the projects!
Marge