Six Ideas for Helping Under-Resourced Students

 

 Normally, books don't make me furious. 

Jonathan's Kozol's book, Savage Inequalities, made me furious. 

The book (read more about it here) is the account of a former educator-turned-education advocate and education reformer. Kozol visits schools in cities like East St. Louis, Camden, N.J., New York City, Washington, D.C. and other places.

I was truly heartbroken at the education (or lack thereof) that the kids in these inner-cities received.


Savage Inequalities did two other things besides making me angry.

First, it made me appreciative for the education opportunities I received.

Second, it created a passion in me to help underprivileged and under-resourced children receive better education.

I actually tried teaching, but I was awful at it.

I'm talking 2013 New York Giants awful. 

If you've ever had a good teacher, thank him or her. If you're a parent, and your kid has a good teacher, thank him or her. Teaching is not easy.

And, fortunately, there are other ways to make a difference. One thing I got to do today was meet with a great group of people to discuss ways to help minority students and kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds succeed in school.

I have thousands of ideas. Below are six.

• Make afterschool activities such as sporting events affordable.  Sometimes, the kids that would benefit the most from being part of the school's social fabric can't afford the cost to attend several sporting events a week. It would be great to create a program where kids could earn passes.

• Create partnerships with the surrounding institutions of higher learning. Recruiting minority professionals from big cities to smaller towns is difficult. It's asking people to give up a lot culturally. I would love to see an approach where we really emphasized creating a stronger middle class out of the current students here through scholarship programs with Mary Baldwin College and Blue Ridge Community College.

• 30-for-30: A volunteer a day. I would love to see a group of 30 minority professionals in the community commit to volunteer 30 minutes a month. Each professional would be assigned his or her own day. Each day of the month, all of the kids in the school (white, black, Asian, Hispanic, etc.) would have examples of successful minorities who care enough to invest in their local school systems.

•  Mentorships and internships. I would love to see some of those same 30 professional volunteers make themselves available in the mentorship program. I know a lot of the students at R.E. Lee fairly well, and I know a lot of the minority professionals in this community fairly well. I know it would be a valuable experience. 

• A  support group for high-achieving minority students. I know of two black male students currently enrolled at Governor's School. These were not kids born with silver spoons in their mouths. In both cases, the students have worked hard to put themselves in places to succeed and could benefit from a support system.  

•  A more strategic use of what's already available.  I've had a chance to get to know the Boys & Girls Club director Tyrell McElroy over the past year. His vision for what the club could be is amazing. It sounds like the answer to a lot of the systemic problems that kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds routinely face. More people need to know about it. 

  Question: Did you like an idea? Did you hate an idea? Do you have an idea? I would love to hear them. 

Chris Lassiter is a husband to Emily, father of five, and Young Life leader in his own former high school, Robert E. Lee in Staunton, VA. He has written for The News Leader, VIBE, S.O.U.L Mag, HipHopDX.com, Rapzilla.com and Young Life Relationships magazine. He is the author of You're Grounded, which you can read about here.