careers. We ask them to take a couple hours, one afternoon a week, to
over the years, but one kid I especially remember, John, was a special-
work with a team of kids to create an amazing project. We work with the
needs student, getting Ds and Fs. It seemed like he wouldn’t finish high
volunteers to design the courses and we now have a databank of more
school and was on his way to becoming a depressing statistic. But he
than one hundred that have really worked. We want each volunteer to bring
happened to love animals. He’d even nursed a bat back to health once in a
their own special sauce and expertise to it, but we also provide them with
shoebox. He took an apprenticeship, “Drugs on the Brain,” with a postdoc-
a template, which dramatically increases their chances of being successful.
toral researcher at Harvard University. He got to hold a human brain in his
We’re always adding new courses as well. In our second year, we
hands and take little pieces of tissue from a sheep’s brain and study them.
had an undertaker suggest that she teach a class. We were a little worried it
All of a sudden, the light went on and he saw the connection between
might upset the parents and freak out the kids. But she persisted. “We’re in
animals and biology and math and science and the future. Because of that
the grief business,” she said. “We’re good at dealing with bereaved adults.
one experience, he got out of special education and became a B student
But we’re not very good with the kids. We’d love to work with your kids
in science and math.
to design a set of activities that we do with young people when they’ve
Another kid, named Francisco, took an apprenticeship in carpentry
lost someone.” That was a perfect Citizen Schools apprenticeship: middle-
with a teacher named Joel Bennett. The project was for every kid to make a
school kids working with a talented adult to do something important for the
really high quality toolbox. On the side of his toolbox, in big letters, Francisco
community that would otherwise be outside their experience set.
wrote, “Miguel.” Joel asked him, “Who’s Miguel?” Francisco said, “Miguel is an older gentleman in my community and he took me out to a baseball
“Middle school is when the brain is changing very quickly. It is the forgotten link in the educational reform chain.”
game. He always takes me out for ice cream. I’ve never had anything to give him.” This kid was finally able to give something back to a caring adult. What we’re doing isn’t supplemental to education reform: it is education reform. I think what we’ve got in America is a broken, industrial-era, agricultural-schedule model for education that’s not working. Thirty percent of our kids aren’t even graduating from high school. The United States has
Our other key pillar, besides apprenticeships, is the hundreds of re-
moved from first in the world to twelfth in the world educationally, because
ally talented AmeriCorps teaching fellows who join us for a two-year full-
school is not connected enough to the real world. It’s not preparing kids for
time commitment right after college. These are the best and the brightest,
college or the workforce. And truthfully, it’s not very interesting.
and they are so dedicated to changing the world that they are willing to
Citizen Schools is a new model for education that supports teachers
work for starvation wages. They help kids academically, talking to teachers
and allows schools to truly reinvent themselves in much more successful
in the morning and to parents at night, knitting together the worlds of the
ways. The ideas behind our program need to become commonplace as
regular school, the extended day, the home, and the community. They help
opposed to the exception. Our goal is not only to grow and extend our
kids with their homework, bring them on field trips to college campuses,
own reach, but also to see other organizations replicate our model and
and support the volunteer Citizen teachers. Citizen Schools adds three
partner with local school districts all over the country. Regardless of the
hours to the school day, four to five days a week, all through middle school.
delivery method, the central idea is to provide kids with more time for
The apprenticeships are two afternoons a week. Then every day, there’s
more relevant learning, and more exposure to successful adults. When you
some time to practice academic skills.
do that in middle school, it sets them up for success in high school, college,
There are so many great stories about the kids we’ve worked with
Citizen Schools
and beyond.
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