Once Upon a School, started by Dave Eggers is such an inspiration about what is possible. If you have 24 minutes today, check out his talk/story. You will be glad you did.
Here is a bit of the background for you…
They started with after-school tutoring as the foundation of 826 Valencia in San Francisco. But the volunteer corps grew so quickly and broadly — within a year they had 1100 tutors, from hundreds of occupations — that they were able to dream of many other ways to work with students, schools, teachers, and parents.
With an abundance of support, they were able to do much more than we intended.
They were able to begin hosting daily field trips where students learned story writing, editing and bookmaking. They were able to send tutors into schools all over the city at a teacher’s behest. They were able to host nightly workshops, open to all, taught by professionals. They were able to give four yearly college scholarships and a monthly teacher award (attached to a monetary grant). They were able to publish paperback and hardcover books of student work, in addition to producing dozens of newspapers, chapbooks, student films, plays, radio shows and websites.
The essence of the program is that it’s like school, but it’s not school.
The students come to 826 because it’s fun, it’s warm, it’s full of people who care — but who don’t HAVE to care. That is, the average students knows his teacher has to help with his schoolwork, and he knows his parents have to help. But there’s something very new and transformative about meeting a member of the community — a professional journalist, a radio disc jockey, a graduate student, an advertising copywriter, a software developer, a retired lawyer — and have that person give them 2-3 hours of undivided attention. Almost without exception, student achievement and understanding leaps when they are given this concentrated one-on-one attention. Teachers and parents love the help, and the students get to ask a hundred questions until they truly understand a concept.
