Visiting homes

For the last several weeks I've been getting a few hours in at a new job with Learn It Systems. They are providing online tutoring for students in the Minneapolis Public schools. To qualify the students need to receive reduced lunches and be doing poorly in a school that has failed to meet standards for the past three years. The Learn It Systems program gives the student a netbook computer and an air card to provide the internet connection. Once they have completed 19 hours of tutoring in either math or English, the computer is theirs. My role is to take the computer into the home and make sure the student has begun taking the pretest. I also unlock the computer once they have finished so they can do something with it besides just go to the tutoring website.

It is always interesting to go into homes and see how people live and react to a guest in their home. More than one has forgotten I was coming and the standard response is to start sweeping the floor or doing the dishes. The first time I unlocked a computer, the mother talked to me non-stop. I was grateful when she finally understood that I wasn't able to focus and it would go much faster if she left me alone. Another mother sat quietly beside me the whole time. By then I knew what I was doing and could have engaged in some conversation.

The first home I visited was very sparsely furnished. The only thing in the living room was a twin mattress and a TV sitting on a chair. The dining room didn't have anything in it. And the longer I was there, the more kids seemed to appear. I think by the end I had counted 6. In another home I only saw the living room. There was a couch under the window and the rest of the room was filled with a bed. I have no idea what was behind the curtains in the rooms on either side.

Many of the parents speak little English, though at least one parent seems to understand enough to get the basic sense of what I am trying to communicate to them. Last week I met a family from Nepal. Though the father spoke some English, the mother knew just a few words she was eager to try out on me. I had some extra time so I gladly accepted a cup of very good chai as they practiced their English. In some ways I felt like I was back in France.

I think the most enjoyable moment I've had so far came as I explained to a first-grader that the computer would be hers once she completed the 19 hours of tutoring. A wide smile spread across her face. She was delighted with the prospect of being able to earn something she could call her own.