Teens with class

By Dawn Eden


















During the afternoon before I spoke at St. Alphonsus Church's "Views from the Veranda" series in Chicago last week, I gave a talk to interns who volunteer at the Metro Achievement Center, an after-school program for inner-city girls. That's me in purple, glammed up in advance of my nighttime talk, posing with some of the interns, who come from colleges around the country to spend the summer helping out at the center.

I was very impressed with the center, which is run by members of Opus Dei and includes a chapel with some lovely art. It is an oasis for the girls who come there, many of whom rarely have the opportunity to meet kids outside of their own neighborhood and their own ethnic group. I got to meet some of them too, and they seemed very happy, friendly, and intellectually engaged. It didn't surprise me to learn that 98% of the kids in the program — ordinary kids, not necessarily "gifted" ones — go on to graduate high school, as opposed to 44% of their Chicago peers.

If this sounds like a PSA, it is. (Full disclosure: After my talk, Metro's director surprised me with a $25 Barnes and Noble card and a plastic mug full of Hershey's nuggets.) I don't run PSAs very often, but it's not often that I speak at a place outside of a church that does such good work.

I'm really in awe of people like the college students I met who work in the teaching field, especially when they seek to work with children who, because of their disadvantages at home, are not necessarily the easiest to teach. I would like to have their charism someday, but right now, it seems the best I can hope for is to teach the teachers.

From: http://www.dawneden.com/2007/07/teens-with-class.html