See It: The Community being helped

Close your eyes and allow yourself to accompany me on a journey to a scene all too familiar to many inner city minority youth. While on this journey you meet a child raised in a home with only one parent who is forced to work three jobs just to make ends meet. The only attention this child gets is at school because he never see's his mother. He also never gets any homework or help, but that’s the price he must pay for being born in a single parent home where he needs food and clothes to sustain his daily living. This youth like many of his other counterparts struggles at reading. At school, wanting the attention that he never receives at home this child misbehaves in order to get noticed. But, instead of attention; he gets out of school suspension. Now this child, already in dire need of instruction falls further behind his peers, and is left in the shadows of ILLITERACY.
With the year I have been given to do service on behalf of others I plan to address the ever growing problem illiteracy in America's children. I will assemble a team to go into inner-city schools and seek out the children with the greatest need of help in the area of reading. My team will be called With Literacy and Justice for All. President George Bush implemented No Child Left behind but it is not enough. The way our education system is set up if a child has a slight behavior problem, we give them Ritalin in the place of education. I have witnessed teachers send the "bad" students outside of the classroom, until they learn how to behave. Not only are they not learning proper behavior, but they are also missing out on important instruction. This is where With Literacy and Justice for All comes in:
Each member of my team will work with a particular student for two months. The first week of the program will be spent bonding with the child, learning their likes and dislikes, as well as giving them the attention that each child needs. During week two we will asses their reading skills, in order to develop a plan suited to the needs of each child. During weeks three through six we will read with the children and try to give them a foundation that will improve their reading skills as well as their grades. The final weeks of the program will be focused on teaching the children the importance of giving someone else the gift of reading that we have given to them. On the final day of the program we will have a social event for all of the children helped by the team to meet other children facing the same problems as them. This will give let the children know that they are not the only ones facing these issues. The cycle would repeat itself six times throughout the year reaching out to as many students as possible.
At the end of the year if my team mates and I have helped at least one child to break the mold and become a better reader then I feel our mission has been accomplished. While my goal is to make a difference in the life in every child we encounter, that is not always possible due to various reasons. Each year the program will reach out to more students, and eventually the problem of illiteracy among America's youth will be eliminated. If each youth passes the gift of reading along to someone else in need of help America will be "One nation under God, Indivisible, WITH LITERACY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL."