Monday, November 12, 2012

Making the Connection: Life Changing Children


When I began at Jumpstart I was excited, but mostly to just be around children. I missed my babysitting job and wanted to spend time making a difference in children’s lives. However, upon beginning Jumpstart, I started to see a whole new world that I had never expected. I loved being in the classroom and seeing my team start to make a difference and learn about these kids and how smart they are. I started to see what it would mean to be part of the change in education.

As soon as this happened I started to think about how my major would fit in with education and then it all changed. Jumpstart has slowly started to change my idea of what I want to do in life. I have always wanted to change something in the world and I think what needs help is our education system. We need an education system that all children can access and one that all children can succeed the same in. After watching “Wait for Superman” I realized that this is not true for all children. With the lottery system, children do not all have the same chances in life and that is something that they are owed. The government needs to be able to accommodate all of these children and No Child Left Behind is not the answer. I believe that the answer is changing tenure. No teacher should be harder or easier to fire. If they are doing a job well then they have earned the right to stay. If they are not, they deserve to leave with no recommendations from the school.

Though there are people that are trying to change these ways I think that it all starts in the schools. That is the beauty of Jumpstart; we have a chance to get these kids excited about learning. Seeing a child start leaping at the chance to spell their name for you and write it. You see the children get excited about the smallest things, they are curious about everything and all they want is to learn. When children change the course of your life and what you want to pursue, it is a powerful thing. Thanks to Jumpstart I feel as though I have a new thing to fight for in life. Children need to be fought for, they cannot fight for themselves, and we are the answer. We can make the connection. 

Reka Keller
Team Leader
Team Connection 

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