In Desperate Need of Books
Donation protected
Budget cuts across Chicago Public Schools have hit our English Department hard. We now need to be resourceful in order to purchase novels for 285 intelligent, hardworking students, 98% of whom happen to be low-income.
We are inner-city, National Board Certified English teachers who steadfastly believe in the potential of all of our students. We have spent literally hundreds and hundreds of hours the past seven years meticulously developing and aligning our freshman through senior curricula so that our students are college-ready readers, writers, and thinkers by the time they leave our rooms. As a direct result of this curricula (NOT test prep), our standardized test scores have improved more than any other department's in the school, which in turn provides our students access to selective colleges.
We put our hearts and souls into this school and our kids every single day. We can do without air conditioning on the third floor during 90 degree Chicago weather; we guzzle water. We can do without paper to make copies; we buy our own and bring it up from our car three flights of stairs one ream at a time. We can do without a functioning computer lab large enough to hold a full class; we teach our kids how to be resourceful by going to their public libraries and, in the worst case scenarios, typing full essays into Google Drive on their smart phones.
What we cannot do without--no, what we REFUSE to do without--are the materials we need to build the foundational critical skills that our students need and deserve.
Justice is providing students from the South Side of Chicago with access to the same quality of materials that the students in the North Shore of Chicago are guaranteed. And, at least on our watch, we will not allow the injustices of a budget to impact our kids for the rest of their lives.
Our curricula is a careful balance of canonical and contemporary texts, providing our students with exposure to language that both deepens their understanding of their own world and lifts distant, unknown worlds off the pages and into their ever-expanding world view.
Five dollars will help a freshman experience the pure wonder that only Shakespeare's language in Romeo and Juliet can awaken in a young mind. Ten dollars will give a sophomore the chance to indulge in the words of one of the greatest American novelists of all time, F. Scott Fitzgerald, as they read The Great Gatsby. Ten dollars will awaken in juniors the curiousity to question the importance of independent and creative thought in society through Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Twelve dollars will provide a senior with one of the most important reading experiences of their lives as they explore, through reading Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, what it means to be black in America.
We would not ask if we were not desperate. While $9000 seems like a lot, it comes out to $32 a student. This is a small price to pay for lifelong success.
You have our deepest and sincerest gratitude.
We are inner-city, National Board Certified English teachers who steadfastly believe in the potential of all of our students. We have spent literally hundreds and hundreds of hours the past seven years meticulously developing and aligning our freshman through senior curricula so that our students are college-ready readers, writers, and thinkers by the time they leave our rooms. As a direct result of this curricula (NOT test prep), our standardized test scores have improved more than any other department's in the school, which in turn provides our students access to selective colleges.
We put our hearts and souls into this school and our kids every single day. We can do without air conditioning on the third floor during 90 degree Chicago weather; we guzzle water. We can do without paper to make copies; we buy our own and bring it up from our car three flights of stairs one ream at a time. We can do without a functioning computer lab large enough to hold a full class; we teach our kids how to be resourceful by going to their public libraries and, in the worst case scenarios, typing full essays into Google Drive on their smart phones.
What we cannot do without--no, what we REFUSE to do without--are the materials we need to build the foundational critical skills that our students need and deserve.
Justice is providing students from the South Side of Chicago with access to the same quality of materials that the students in the North Shore of Chicago are guaranteed. And, at least on our watch, we will not allow the injustices of a budget to impact our kids for the rest of their lives.
Our curricula is a careful balance of canonical and contemporary texts, providing our students with exposure to language that both deepens their understanding of their own world and lifts distant, unknown worlds off the pages and into their ever-expanding world view.
Five dollars will help a freshman experience the pure wonder that only Shakespeare's language in Romeo and Juliet can awaken in a young mind. Ten dollars will give a sophomore the chance to indulge in the words of one of the greatest American novelists of all time, F. Scott Fitzgerald, as they read The Great Gatsby. Ten dollars will awaken in juniors the curiousity to question the importance of independent and creative thought in society through Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Twelve dollars will provide a senior with one of the most important reading experiences of their lives as they explore, through reading Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, what it means to be black in America.
We would not ask if we were not desperate. While $9000 seems like a lot, it comes out to $32 a student. This is a small price to pay for lifelong success.
You have our deepest and sincerest gratitude.
Organizer
Sara Fliehman Levinstein
Organizer
Chicago, IL
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