Chapter Four: Personal Reflections and AH HA moments.

“On average”

That children of low socioeconomic status (SES)would be less well prepared at the start of their educations than children of higher SES is a natural conclusion to reach. The lower a family is on the SES “scale” the more likely it is for family earnings to be spent on the necessities such as: living accommodations, food, and utilities. Personally, books are a necessity for every family, but there are way to have access to books that are absolutely free! My troupe of librarian friends would be severely angered at me if I did not endorse the function that a town or county library can serve children and their families.

The text uses the term “on average” when detailing how children of lower SES families are less prepared because there will always be exceptions. My family was one such exception. Growing up my family was certainly not rich, but we were not the extreme either. We always had a home, food, electricity and all the basic requirements of leading a healthy life. We always had books in the house and we made frequent trips to one of several town libraries. My favorite town library was first and foremost a children's library but there was certainly plenty for adults to peruse as well. To this day I can still feel and hear the floorboards creek under my feet and I can still smell the books.

There are always alternatives even if you are of lower socioeconomic status. With the right help a child can have many of the same opportunities that a child of higher SES might have had.

Summer reading had me a blast! Summer reading happened so fast!

The previously mentioned single room school turned library, in fact called The Watertown West Branch Library was my home away from home. The library was a fun and safe place to be and I actually looked forward to going and picking out my summer reading materials and partaking in the summer reading club.

Summer was normally seen as a time of being out and playing at the park. I always preferred a balance. I loved baseball and running around the park, but my love of reading also needed to be fed. Each and every year from early elementary onward we were assigned summer reading selections. The great thing was that I could actually choose from a list of many books. During the school year my reading selections were determined by my teachers and the standard curriculum, and being the slow reader that I was/am I had very little free reading time during the school year. Summer gave me flexibility and choice. Browsing over the different possibilities made me feel like the king of the library. I would make my first selection, and my second and my third.

A Community – Whether We Kids Liked it or Not

My city's schools were models of the area I grew up in. We all knew everyone. Our parents were friends or at the very least friendly. We saw each other in school and at the park and when we went out to eat. You would think that we could all use some quiet time alone in our own households, right? It was not meant to be.

My elementary school loved holding all kind of family events. James Russell Lowell Elementary had picnics and book fairs, tons of parent's nights, assemblies where students had to attend and parents were encourage to join. Parents took turns helping in classrooms or working small jobs around the school. After school activities were mostly run by our parents as they were Troop Leaders and Den Mothers.

Parents loved being part of the PTA and helping guide our schools to meet the standards that would benefit their children not just for the day, but for the future. The vital community atmosphere was created and fostered by involvement of many – parents, teachers, administrators, community leaders, and government officials.

“The Julie L. Phenomena”

Freshman year of high school I was in Honors English and this worried me. My junior high teachers felt I had a knack for writing and I seemed to be writing at an advanced level – there were even a couple of occasions when at the beginning of the school year my new teachers asked me how much I help I had at home. The answer was always, “Very little.” I prided myself on doing my own work and doing the best that was possible with my skill set. Teachers always felt my writing had a sense of “being written by an older person.” My teachers were always relieved after my first in class essays were written and the writing was of the same feel, tone and quality as my homework.

Sitting in my high school English class though, things were different. Mrs. K – my teacher - was quite a different person. The class was not highly structured and there was a very free feeling when it came to discussions. Actually, let me back up a minute and mention that in this class of twenty-five students there was a total of three boys. Most of the girls had their own little circles that they stuck to. Mike and I had known each other since kindergarten and while not best friends, we got along well enough. The third boy in the class was a transfer from the West Coast and had very similar attitudes as our teacher. Now, I had previously mentioned a rather free feeling inside the classroom and this was true if you were anyone other than myself or Mike. The girls in the room could wander about and hold discussions. They could shout out answers. They could come and go as they please. Things for Mike and I were very different though. Throughout those first months of class Mrs. K. would routinely chastise us for doing the exact same things that all the girls in the class were doing. If my hand was not up in the air to ask my question it would be noted and points deducted for the day. If Mike or I were confused, she would say to check with someone else after class.

And then there was Julie L. Each and every time we had any kind of assignment, Mrs. K. would reach into her stack of papers and present us with Julie's essay. Each time Mrs. K. would read Julie's paper aloud so that the whole class could here what she had written. My work had always been of high quality, yet never had there ever been any mention of what I had written and more often than not I was staring at a C or even a D. Trying to talk to Mrs. K. proved futile as she had once said to me, “Men have had it easy for centuries.”

Luckily, my locker happened to be right next to the office for the head of the English Department for all of the city's schools. She had loved my older brother as a student and came to know me as well. She asked one day how English was going and I showed her my C. She asked to take a look at my paper to offer some help and I gladly accepted. The following morning as I was packing my jacket into my locker. The department head handed me my paper with a newly scribbled mark on it...a B+. She said my work was much better than I had been given credit for and that I should keep working. It was nice to know that someone cared.

Needless to say, English class was very different from that point until the end of the year as it was a much more balanced classroom. And would you believe, Mrs. K. even read one of my short stories to the class.

And then there were my first MTELS...

This past July saw me having to take the communication and reading portions of the MTELs for my graduate school admissions process. The day of the test was a rather warm one and of course Arlington High School was without air conditioning. All test takers were shown to their testing rooms and we took our assigned seats. The female to male ratio in my classroom was 6:1. Sitting there in silence waiting for the exam to start I made an observation and asked aloud to those around me, “Do you think they put all four of us guys in a corner by ourselves for a reason?” Did they?