Prompt 1-Connection to Kozol

        When I first heard about the service learning project I was very excited. I am the oldest of six and I love working with children. Before my service learning actually started I decided to go find Brown Long School. I wanted to find the school ahead of time so I knew exactly where I was going on my first day, and would not be late. When I first pulled onto the street where my school was located I thought to myself this cannot be the right street. The street was very narrow with apartment building basically on top of each other, very little space. When I reached the middle of the street there was the school. The school was a brick building, decent size but there was very little parking space. They were cars up and down the whole street.
        I started my service learning on February 8, 2010. When I walked up to the building I tried to open the door but it would not open then I noticed a buzzer that I had to press in order to get buzzed in. When I first walked in I noticed a lady sitting at a small table working on some papers. I then went into the main office. It was very small with only two desk and two women working and then a door that lead into the principal’s office. I waiting for about ten minutes then me and some of the other service learning students were told to go to a room upstairs to meet with the schools reading coach. The school was very bare, throughout the hallways there was very little color and no pictures or art work on the walls. It felt somewhat cold. When I was in middle school and high school and I can remember students art work being displayed all over the school. I met with the schools reading coach who seemed like a very nice lady who really cared about the students. She went over a ton of activities she does with the students to help improve their reading skills. She went on to explain how she and other teachers have meetings to find other ways to help improve the students reading. I could tell just by talking to her that bringing up the students reading skills was very important for this school. I understood even more why it is so important to bring up their reading skills when she mentioned the most of the students that attended this school were a year to two years below their expected reading level.
        I then went to the classroom I was assigned to help during my service learning. My class room was on the first floor. I could remember that two of the other reading buddies said their classroom were in the basement. I thought to myself what school has classrooms in the basement? Maybe there are so many kids they need to have classrooms in the basement to accommodate the students. I later found out that Brown Long Elementary had 520 students who attended their school. When I entered the room there was a Chinese female teacher with a bunch of first graders surrounding her. Her name was Mrs. Hope. She was giving them directions to go work on their workbooks. I was in there for about five minutes then a bell rang and some students left the room and some student entered. I noticed that most of the students in the class were African American, Spanish, or mixed. There was only one white student and two Chinese students. The class room was a fairly decent size with a colorful rug in front of the teacher’s desk. There were six desks in the room where the students worked and three computers in the back of the room. There was also two other doors on each side of the room connecting to other classrooms. I could tell that reading and writing skills were valued in this classroom because there were many reading and vocabulary games throughout the room. Also when I was working with my assigned students the teacher was working with half of the class on their reading skills by going over the sounds of the letters as well as having the students read out loud. While this was going on the other half of the class room was working on their workbooks which consisted of more reading and writing.
        After my first day of tutoring Jonathan Kozol came to my mind. In Still Separate, Still Unequal Kozol explains how segregation still exists in American public schools. I found this to be true when the majority of the students in my class were Spanish and African American. He also goes on to explain that we are segregated by economy. I also found this to be true with Brown Long Elementary school. There was not one house on the road where the school was located, just apartment building's. I also found out the 93% of the students who go to that school received subsidized lunch, and almost all of the families who have children who attend that school are considered poor. Once again proving Kozol's point that we are segregated by economy.