Charter Schools

File this post under education.  Under Literacy.  Under FAILING, at least from my experience.

I help out with the reading program at the Boys and Girls Club, and I began reading with this really cute, nice little boy.  He asked me to read Clifford with him, and I asked him what grade he was in.  He replied “third grade.”

The kid couldn’t even recognize “I.”  The stick, the one letter stick that is used when the narrator of a story is speaking about themselves.  I.  He can get “and” or “the”  now, after a couple of weeks of reading.  He for sure can read “Clifford” now, and  he is even pretty good with “was!”

We still struggle with words like “it” and “for.”

Third grade.

I asked my boss what in the world was going on, why couldn’t he read?  She told me he went to the local charter school.  I had no idea what that was,  and she explained it was kind of like a public private school.  Public, like no tuition and anyone could go, but private that it was limited space and they didn’t have to follow regulations like regular public schools.  Mainly, they only have to hire one qualified teachers.

“Who are the other people that teach?” I wondered, thinking it would be Teach for America people at least.  She replied that they just hire  people to teach.  In some quick online research on charter schools, this seems to be cited as a benefit.  No stuffy, educated teachers to  stifle the learning process.  Charter schools hire free thinking people to teach kids however they want, in new and different ways!

“That school is doing him NO favors,” my boss said.  And I can’t help but agree.  I don’t know exactly how charter schools work or why they would let students get to the third grade without being able to read (and it’s not just him, all the other kids from that school show signs of being behind), but I can certainly tell something is amiss.

Education = way out of poverty = NOT involving a charter school.