We have over 30 students, the majority from Brazil and Haiti this year, with a spattering of Guatemala, Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Mexico. These are kids choosing to give up their summer to improve their reading and writing skills and, the program is not district funded, but relies on the network of CWP individuals who see the benefit of investing in the next generation of change makers. And then there's the grant-writing. 11 years strong and always growing...trying to find solutions in the way that our institutions have failed . If you have a productive, literacy citizenry, you have the change-makers of the world ahead. All children deserve access, and that is what we set out to do over a decade ago.
Jessica will join next week, but for now Mr. King is running shop...well, Mr. King with Abu, Max, Mateo, and Jalen. It's special, and after the first day, I already know the magic will continue. We are reading David Bowles, discussing boundaries, regions, cultures, language, work, reading, writing, identity, and being. I'm so thankful to the YA community for creating the books that are useful to the learners we have in our classroom.
I did the math last night and I've seen over 2,500 young people grow through CWP's programs. It's rather impressive, and I only wish the work had more influence on K-12 school during the academic year. We try. But there are only so many teachers we can reach each year AND it's a special kind of teacher who finds the mission of the National Writing Project...
...like Mr. King...
so thankful for his vision, leadership, love of kids, and intellect.
And with that, on we go to day 2 of week 3.
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