Updated Website

Just finished updating the website. I have to use a drag and drop program to get anything done since I am apparently computer language illiterate, but I think it looks alright.
I updated most of the details from what we did this past summer, what we're doing this fall, and some of the organizational information.

The biggest change, which I hope will allow more people to get involved, is the introduction of the online sign-up form. Now if you're interested in working with the Education Exchange Corps, you can just fill out an online form that gives me enough details to find you a placement.

Check it out at: www.eduexchangecorps.org/get-involved-1

Let me know what you think about the website in the comments.

So sorry--But stay tuned

I have done a terrible job blogging.

No more excuses. Just results.

I am improving the website, looking into funding sources, and I'll keep you all updated as I do.
A lot more to come.

First Story Break: Education Debate at The Economist

Interesting debate at The Economist's website on education.

The motion:

"This house believes promoting maths and sciences education is the best way to stimulate future innovation."

The debate seems to be focused on the future of United States' prosperity rather than on what is best for the children involved.

I used to full-heartedly agree with this motion, but after working with kids for the last 6 years and studying economics for the past 4, I think that future innovation may best be achieved by incorporating as many people in the discussion as possible. That means triggering creative passions in all children, not just the mathematically or scientifically gifted ones.

The "everything in moderation" saying has a lot of truth to it. We can be a really smart country of math whizzes, but that would exclude the great artists and writers from our collective academic focus.

When we try to make something more expansive to involve more people in a set subject, we will undoubtedly have people participating who normally wouldn't (i.e. more would-be-authors will become chemical engineers). That doesn't necessarily improve the quality of the field. In fact, it could very well detract from it, and from the other fields which have lost out on talent (ex. the would-be-author cannot write his would-be Pulitzer-winning story, and instead makes a living as a mediocre polymer lab technician).

Maybe instead of looking for an easily labeled fix, we should try something even more innovative--finding what kids really like doing, and finding ways of incorporating those passions into productive paths, some of which we can only imagine today.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't promote math and science, but we shouldn't allow these subjects to crowd out their equally worthy counterparts.

To see the debate, visit http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/578. I'm sure I'll have more comments in the coming days on this topic.

The Setting: St. Louis

The Gateway to the West, host of the 1904 World's Fair, the eastern metropolis of the Show Me State; there is a lot of history built into St. Louis, a history that still casts its shadow over the city today.

If you've ever seen anything associated with the city, you've probably gotten at least a glimpse of our famous landmark--the Arch.

The cityscape is incomplete without this monument, which is a memorial to President Thomas Jefferson's agreeing to the Louisiana Purchase and the nation's western expansion in general. If you take a close look at the picture to the left, you'll see a lighted building with a domed top that appears to be neon green beneath the Arch. That is the Old Courthouse, where the infamous Dred Scott case that upheld the evils of slavery was argued. While slavery is dead to us today, its legacy has found a way to survive our efforts to stamp it out in St. Louis.

Still, today, downtown St. Louis is nicer than it has ever been in my lifetime. The city has been one of the leaders in the urban renewal movement, and recent estimates suggest that the population flight, which has had a major impact on the city, has stopped. In 1950, over 850,000 people lived in the city. Estimates from 2006 had the city at under 350,000 residents, and more recent estimates report similar numbers.

While the city is arguably in a state of rejuvenation, blight is no uncommon sight. Driving 10-15 minutes either north or south within city limits unveils the lingering problems affecting the city, and the immensity of the project the city has undertaken. Much of the city remains economically and racially segregated, a remnant of restrictive community covenants, legally done away with in the mid-1900s, that prevented blacks from moving into white neighborhoods. Poverty levels are high, buildings are vacated and often dilapidated, old shops are boarded, jobs are scarce, and schools are struggling to educate the community's children.

The St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS), the city's public school district, has a huge challenge on its hands. Education is supposed to be our nation's best opportunity for the poor to escape poverty, but that charge is difficult to undertake for any school system that must cope with widespread poverty. In 2009, almost 70% of SLPS children received free/reduced price lunches. That number is often much higher at individual schools where virtually every student enrolled is considered to be "at-risk," sometimes reaching higher than 95%.

In this environment, some schools have shined, many have failed, and as a result the district is today unaccredited. Today, the reform process is accelerating. Schools have been closed and students were consolidated at fewer sites in order to shrink a district, once meant to serve the children of almost one million people, so that it can spread resources more effectively to the 25,000 kids who are enrolled today. The district is also embracing creative interventions in an effort to improve academic outcomes.

The challenges are overwhelming and the results have so far not been good enough. Children today are suffering because of the sins of our collective past, and the cycle of poverty too often remains unbroken.

With this history in mind, a lifelong St. Louisan, just into his sophomore year in college, made a phone call to the St. Louis Public Schools. When no one picked up, or called him back again for two weeks, he figured the lack of response was normal with a district not know for its great reputation. Little did he know that it was he who had faltered--the message he left with the Office of Volunteer Services was incoherent at best. After a call to the United Way in St. Louis, he quickly found himself calling the St. Louis Public Schools again.

This time, he got an answer:

"I wanted to get in touch with you, but I couldn't understand your name on the message!"

"Sorry about that. I just thought you didn't want to talk to me. My name is Elad."

"E-huh?"

Little did either person on that phone call know that out of their joint confusion would emerge a project bringing a handful of college students into a St. Louis summer school to work as teaching assistants, a project that has become a St. Louis tradition for the past 3 years.

New Blog Launch

This blog is undergoing a massive change.

Today, I am announcing the launch of a new blog series. I recognize that most of you reading this blog have no idea what the Education Exchange Corps is, even though you might know me.

For the next several weeks, I will be documenting the story of our organization from our humble beginnings to our present state. I will tell you a story of how a small community service project staffed by 7 college students grew into an organization that places over 100 college students in St. Louis classrooms during the course of the year.

Being an insider to this process, I recognize that I might subconsciously make jumps in the story that seem sensible to me. If you have any questions, please leave your comments and I'll do my best to respond.

I will also take the liberty of using story breaks to talk about what is going on today. I'll point those posts out as we go along.

So sit back, relax, and share in our experiences as we meet in a city called St. Louis.

Plans for Monday, July 12

This morning, we will be holding a teachers' conference at Froebel Elementary. We will go over materials classes need, whether children of different skill levels should move up or down grades, and how best to structure our after-school program. Our conference at Jefferson on Friday turned out to be pretty successful, as the volunteer instructors were able to share their teaching tricks with each other.

As this is the second week of the program, we are expecting attendance to increase pretty dramatically--at least, if it will increase, these next few days will be the time for it to happen.

It's also a new experiment day at Froebel Elementary. Today we will be learning how lungs work using soda bottles, rubber bands, and balloons. More on that later.

Summer 2010

Here's what we are doing (and have done) this summer.

Normally, we place college students in summer elementary school classrooms as teaching assistants. That means they help out the teacher any way they can, from putting kids' work up on a bulletin board to running photocopies to helping with lesson plans.

This year, the St. Louis Public Schools, as well as just about every other school district in the area, cut summer school. What was once a 6 week program was reduced to 3 weeks of limited enrollment. So the Education Exchange Corps offered to provide summer programming for an additional 3 weeks--the 3 weeks of summer school and 3 weeks of volunteer-run summer enrichment programs.

From June 14-July 2, our volunteers and interns worked as teaching assistants within the summer school setting at 6 schools:

1) Froebel Elementary

2) Jefferson Elementary

3) Lexington Elementary

4) Gateway Elementary

5) Gateway Michael

6) The International Welcome School

Now, from July 6-July 23, we are staffing two summer enrichment sites, one at Froebel Elementary in the city's south side, and one at Jefferson Elementary, located closer to the north side.

Enrollment has been increasing each day, but so far we have been able to offer intensive instruction in math, reading, and writing to around 80 kids.

What's more, our kids are even participating in performance arts programs. At Jefferson Elementary, COCA is running an arts program for each grade four days a week, while at Froebel Elementary one of our volunteers is running a similar program five days a week.

I have also been personally running a science program at each school. For two days a week per school, I work with the kids to conduct some sort of experiment. So far kids have learned about convection currents and density from a hot/cold water mixing demonstration and have been exposed to the different states of matter and chemical changes through a slime experiment. I will write a separate post about the science lessons to give you all a taste of what is going on in the classrooms.

When the summer programs conclude, I will begin recruiting college students to participate in a part-time service program I will be running throughout the year.

Starting an organization, especially one that addresses a dire need in my community, has been an exciting experience, but two types of moments that occur during the course of our program always hold precedence in my heart over the others. The first is, of course, seeing the kids we work with learn something new and love every moment of it. The second is hearing about the volunteers' experiences after they have had time to reflect a few weeks after the program concludes. The sort of engagement that occurs in the classroom cannot be matched anywhere else, neither for the child who is learning the alphabet, nor for the volunteer teacher who is learning so much about our community, our future, and his or her own self.

Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog of the Education Exchange Corps! We are a non-profit organization serving the local community by placing college students in elementary school classrooms as teaching assistants and instructors. We are currently active in St. Louis, Missouri and we have been working with the St. Louis Public Schools for the past 3 years.

To date, we have placed over 100 college students to work with more than 1000 kids.

In the future, we plan to spread our service model to urban areas throughout the United States.

To learn more about our organization, check out our website at www.eduexchangecorps.org, follow us on Twitter at EduXchangeCorps, or send us an e-mail at educationexchangecorps@gmail.com.

Subsequent posts will focus on the service we are doing in the classroom, so be sure to check back often!

Thanks,

Elad Gross

Executive Director

Education Exchange Corps

educationexchangecorps@gmail.com

www.eduexchangecorps.org