'Power of One' Aids High-Poverty Schools

Charlotte Observer:

With Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools slashing teachers and programs to close a $100 million budget gap, can one volunteer make a difference at a struggling school?

More than 300 people answered "Yes" Tuesday by turning out to help launch "The Power of One," a community-engagement effort built on the notion that anyone can help a high-poverty school.

Read the whole story: Charlotte Observer

Comments

[sawyer0413]

12:02 PM on 02/07/2011

So, here is my modest proposal.

It is a melancholy object to those who traverse this great country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with under-educated children of every gender who are crying out to their educational leaders. Please O! Great Leaders, give us just one more volunteer. How great would our success be if we had just one.

Therefore, since volunteers are of such tremendous value, while the teachers, who we so greatly over-pay based on the learned opinion of so many scholars that they fill our very newspapers, are of marginal or less value, we must act now to replace all our teachers with volunteers. Truly that will save the day. Charter schools are not the answer. They are merely paid by another task master. We need All Volunteer Schools. Who is with me?

***tongue firmly planted in cheek, and with apologies to Jonathan Swift***

[SangZe]

11:35 AM on 02/07/2011

While volunteering is highly commendable and immensely satisfying, that U.S. schools must rely on volunteers tells us that education is not much different than babysitting, and probably worse paid. Education is considered a side-line, something one does while earning his/her "real income" elsewhere, or perhaps one does to keep busy while someone else earns the income.

[wolfiegirl]

10:34 PM on 02/05/2011

There is something immensely satisfying by volunteering at a school.