Senior Spotlight: Independent Learning Experience

 Independent Learning Experience: Working as a Classroom Aide at the

Epiphany School in Dorchester

By Caroline Batten, TeenLife Guest Writer

Senior spring has its perks: less homework, fewer obligations, and, at The Winsor School, a month-long independent project. It was an exciting and daunting prospect, having a month to work on something I chose.

All I knew at first was that I wanted to participate in community service of some kind. I had spent too much time over the past two years in lectures, "Community Curriculum Days” and "focus groups.” We would sit and talk: oh, isn't it horrible. Isn't it sad. That should get fixed. Let's make a difference. And then we never did anything. I felt tired and guilty; what were we actually accomplishing? The endless discussions itched under my skin.

Above all I wanted to work with children. After deliberating for a while, I asked a former teacher of mine if I could work as her classroom aide at the Epiphany School, helping teach reading and writing to her fifth graders.

Epiphany is an independent, tuition-free, Episcopalian school in Dorchester, serving 84 children in grades 5 through 8. Using lottery admission and recommendations from the Massachusetts DSS, Epiphany caters to the highest-risk, lowest-income neighborhoods in Boston. "High-risk” means high levels of violence, gang activity, drug-dealing, teenage pregnancy, homelessness, unemployment and abuse.

Epiphany's mission statement, "Never give up on a child,” sums up the school admirably. Epiphany vows never to write children off as "too slow” or "too troubled” or "beyond help.” And it works; the fifth-grade students arrived at Epiphany reading at a second grade level or below. By the time I met them, all were on grade level for reading, writing and math. Epiphany's instruction, however, extends beyond academics. Rigorous discipline bolsters kids' moral growth. Their twelve-hour school day isolates them from toxic home environments. The school provides medical, psychological and social services to both the kids and their families -- including helping parents find jobs and, in some cases, homes. Fifteen percent of the students will be homeless at some point during their years at the school; all are poor enough to qualify for the federal free lunch program.

These were the kids I spent four weeks with -- working as a classroom assistant, tutoring a handful of them one-on-one, proctoring academic detentions, attending all-school assemblies and Eucharists, and even running the class myself.

Their enthusiasm was almost overwhelming. Even kids with a tendency to pick fights or be disrespectful had a deep motivation beneath their attitude, a determination and desire to do something special in the world. Epiphany had done something powerful for them, changed them fundamentally. Last year at this time, one boy was getting recruited by gangs and another girl was shoplifting. Now they were striving to earn A's, jumping up and down with excitement at the prospect of writing poetry.

These kids grew up in the same city I did, but they might as well have been from another planet. They had seen things I couldn't imagine dealing with at their age. Yet here they were, bouncing and smiling and hugging me, flapping their hands in the air when their teachers asked questions. Their perseverance took me by surprise -- it was beyond inspiring. Working with these amazing kids confirmed for me the power of education to change lives, the inherent goodness of every individual, and the importance of never, ever giving up on a child.

- Caroline Batten is a 2010 graduate of The Winsor School in Boston