A ghetto mexican named pepito
I know now how I'm going to become rich. I'm going to take two pieces of my students' work, frame them, and put them in an art gallery somewhere under the exhibit titled "The Achievement Gap." They might be two pieces like the ones penned today by a 5th grader we'll call Jorge and a 3rd grader we'll call Michelle. The writing prompt was "The most exciting thing I did this weekend was..."
Jorge responds:
"The most exciting thing I did this weekend was... selpt at 5.30 a.m. I met a ghetto mexican named pepito. i also had a party in the pool. That is what i did."
(by the by, being asked by an 10-year-old, "Mr. H, how do you spell 'ghetto'?" is one of the stranger experiences in life)
Michelle, two years Jorge's younger, answers with five pages of clear prose providing with stunningly few errors an almost absurdly detailed account of every hour of her weekend.
We often talk about the achievement gap in terms of numbers or statistics, but it's real, and it's kids in our classrooms. If you ever need a sense of purpose, just visit one for an hour. You'll come away a zealot.
Jorge responds:
"The most exciting thing I did this weekend was... selpt at 5.30 a.m. I met a ghetto mexican named pepito. i also had a party in the pool. That is what i did."
(by the by, being asked by an 10-year-old, "Mr. H, how do you spell 'ghetto'?" is one of the stranger experiences in life)
Michelle, two years Jorge's younger, answers with five pages of clear prose providing with stunningly few errors an almost absurdly detailed account of every hour of her weekend.
We often talk about the achievement gap in terms of numbers or statistics, but it's real, and it's kids in our classrooms. If you ever need a sense of purpose, just visit one for an hour. You'll come away a zealot.
This entry was posted
on Monday, April 03, 2006 at 2:45 PM.
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