Week 13: Accomplishments
1098 words by dhancock
I strongly believe that my project has been very successful. Although it has come to an end this past week I really feel like a lot has been accomplished. I had a very good time this semester getting to know the children that I tutored and the others who joined the homework clinic. Words can not express how much this program has made such a great impact on these children who would not normally receive help in school from their parents either because the parents can not them because of lack of education or they are just too busy to take some time out and help their children. Many people who commented on my project said that they did not understand how I was improving the world by just tutoring a couple of students who attend Xavier’s homework clinic. My response to their questions along with answering the blog question would be that I strongly feel like you have to start somewhere to improve the world. You can not just improve the world overnight because in that case then the world would be already perfect and we would not be doing these projects to improve the world. My philosophy of my project is that if I start with just one child and slowly progress tutoring others my efforts will soon start to show. By me tutoring these children I am helping them in many ways other than just with their homework, we as a homework clinic provide a lot of emotional and physical support to these children which then gives them a balanced life, at least while they are under our care during the few days that they attend. I know my project is improving the world because I am starting by improving New Orleans. Everyone knows that New Orleans’ public system is not the best at all. I was once a student in the New Orleans public school system and realized eventually when I moved out of state and started at new school system how much I had not been taught, and how much I was actually behind from attending such a poor school system. I am not here to put down the school system but to show how my helping could improve it one day and one child at a time. I found a very interesting article that my professor just so happened to write that explains how the public school system if lacking a lot resource to provide local students with the help and proper education that they truly deserve. I think posting this article gives my blog a boost simply because it helps prove why I think tutoring these students is very useful which then would help improve the world drastically. The world would be improved because once you have a lot of educated people with good credibility the poverty and homelessness rates would not be high. The illiteracy rate would not even exist and therefore the world would soon become a better place. The article states: “There were 117 Public Schools in New Orleans prior to Katrina, and they were governed by the Orleans Parish School Board. As the 2006/2007 academic year comes to an end, there are now 53 schools, run by 21 entities, and 19% of these “public” schools have a selective admissions policy. The Orleans Parish School Board now runs only 5 schools. Most of the schools in New Orleans are governed by the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). The state legislature voted in November of 2005 to take 107 schools that were functioning at or below state average away from the Orleans Parish School Board, and give them to the newly formed Recover School District, which is theoretically governed by BESE. BESE is an 11 member board, partly elected, partly appointed. But only one of the 11-member board, Louella Givens, was elected by the citizens of New Orleans. The Orleans Parish School Board let much of this happen. We, the people who live here and are trying to rebuild the city, are working hard to redevelop a sense of community, and to do so we need quality neighborhood schools. I’m hoping that in the Fall of 2008 we can elect a new school board that will take back our schools and work to reduce the achievement gap, ensuring an excellent education for all of our children. This current system where charter school children receive more government funding than others, and where schools compete for the same limited resources, is crippling our community. I recommend an excellent brochure put out by the Center for Community Change entitled “Dismantling a Community.” This article was written by Dr. Michael Homan where it was posted on his own website as a blog.
Here I have posted a picture of two bar graphs that demonstrate the different levels people who have and have not graduated from high school, some college, college and some high school. My picture coincides very well with my project because it shows how education and poverty are directly linked and how much education could improve poverty rates. Although this graph shows high school and higher education levels and I am focusing on the younger children who are in kindergarten through fifth grade I still can help them overcome the fear or doubts about not graduating high school. Like I have plenty of times in this blog, you have to start somewhere. My picture will be posted separately because I need help posting it on here.
Jesus is one of the most influential people in history because all the things that he has done for us. The reason Jesus was crucified was because he wanted to die for our sins that we have done here on Earth. In the story of why Jesus was crucified is that because he was calling him self Messiah. Messiah actually means the king of the Jews. People of the land did not like that he was calling him self the Messiah. The Roman people did not like Jesus because he was not doing what everybody else was doing and he was not going by the stereotypes during their times. With all the attention that Jesus was getting from doing things different to get people to love each other and for forgiving people for their sins. The people of the land took Jesus and crucified him on the cross and killed him. Jesus was like any other person he forgave people for everything they did to him because they did him so wrong. Jesus will always be remembered for who he is and what he did for us