A Culture of Comfort

I’m convinced that culture is the number one factor in student achievement. My friend Paymon backed it up (Apparently Wendy Kopp - founder and CEO of Teach For America told him). Yesterday we wrote changing moment stories, crumpled them up like the secrets they may be, and put them in a basket. We are opening them up (symbolic in the opening of the crumpled ball) and reading them. The positive risk is deciding to identify the story. Yesterday’s were not-so-intense - "Joining sports changed my life." "Coming to high school changed my life." But today we read Alvin’s, the random Chinese immigrant student in my E1 class at Tech. In it he detailed his poor upbringing in Chinese villages, his parents’ divorce and his separation from them, how his aunt and uncle saved every penny day by day, month by month to get him the proper medical care he needed to take care of the chronic asthma that almost killed him, and finally his reunion with his father here in California. He moved to America two years ago and finally received proper medical care (his asthma is nearly gone!!!). Unfortunately, he still feels uncomfortable around students because they make fun of the way he talks and the enthusiasm for our language and for learning - something they often take for granted. Inspiring that he shared it. More inspiring to me as an educator came at the end. At the end, Alvin wrote “I love you so much because you are the one who first called me sweetheart. I feel that comfortable and sweet that you called me that and pleas called nickname go-go.” Broken Chinese/English, but sweeter than my best friend Angel's mom's chocolate chocolate chip cookies.

Two days, and I already see an impact. How wonderful is the work we do? Here's to another day of strategically closing the achievement gap - culture first!