Pat WW CP 9

No word from Johns Hopkins or the other organizations so I guess I am officially a volunteer at the Even Start Program at the Graceland/O’Donnell Elementary School. The morning class is actually very informal as the Mothers and their children are together for a short time. We all played a getting to know you game. Then the children went to their own classroom.

There are two regular teachers in the class: Kelly, who speaks no Spanish and Kate who is multilingual. They started the class with a listening test to try to get a sense of their English levels of understanding. This was all very familiar. There are only 12 women in the class so after the mid morning break, Kellie and Kate had looked at the test papers and identified several women who needed individual help. This was to be my job. I would sit between Evangeline and Norma in the classroom and make sure they were getting the directions and following the program.

At lunch, provided by the program, I got the opportunity to speak casually to the ladies as they ate lunch with the kids. Through an interpreter, I learned that Evangeline had very little understanding of English. She was 42 years old, had 5 children, and had been in the US for 14 years! Her youngest was 7 and just starting school that is why she decided it was finally time to learn English. I asked how it was possible to be in the US for 14 years and have so little understanding of English. This lead to an animated discussion among the ladies about being a “stay at home Mom.” Everyone seemed to have an opinion about the pros and cons of that situation. There were a wide range of opinions. I felt like I was part of that group as seemingly for my benefit, everyone did their best to speak in English.