Why I Teach for America

Stewart is a 6-year-old first grader who is in Special Education because he is emotionally disturbed. To say his story is disheartening is an understatement. At the age of 3, his mother threw him down a flight of concrete stairs and dragged him back up by his feet. At 4, he witnessed his younger brother being beaten to death with a bat by his father. He's lived in three homes within the past year, and his other siblings are in foster care. Currently, he resides with his stern grandparents, the victim of a life of abuse.

I do not teach Special Education. I am the Reading Specialist, so I strictly work with students who are behind in reading. Stewart entered first grade as a non-reader, mainly because he had little knowledge of phonics. Every morning, I pick Stewart up to work with him one-on-one for thirty minutes. And on more than one occasion, he has been my reason for not missing a single day of school.

I guess you could say we have grown quite fond of each other. Even on his worst days, the days when tears seem so easy to come by for him, he runs up to me with a smile. "Ms. Block," he says after every day's lesson, "do I get to see you again tomorrow?" I tell him, "Yes, because you're going to be such a great reader by the end of the year!" And I mean it. He is going to enter the 2nd grade on level in reading (or even ahead) if it is the last thing I do.

The first few weeks of school were rough. We focused on phonics, specifically short vowels. For every book, he would have to segment the phonemes (meaning give the sound for each word), then try to blend the sounds together. It took almost the entire half hour we had to get through a book. The last couple of weeks, I knew his reading was improving. We would have enough time to read a book and follow up with worksheets.

But last week, a miracle happened.

Stewart read whole words correctly without stopping.

I could not contain my excitement. After every sentence he giggled and high-fived me. Both of us could not stop smiling when our lesson was over. Stewart is now a beginning reader!!!

Not every day is as fulfilling as the first day Stewart read whole words. Some days are not even close. But in that moment, I realized that I have a place among all of this. Stewart keeps me coming to school, even after the worst days. However, that is not all.

Stewart, and all of my other students, are why I Teach for America.