What can we do to bridge the education gap?

This is a serious question and one that I spent the last two days pondering in a conference for Breakthrough. Breakthrough is a national organization that singles out gifted but under-served middle school children and attempts to fill in the gaps of their education in order to prepare them for Tier One high schools and ultimately strong four-year colleges and universities. Breakthrough consists of both a 6-week intensive summer school program and a school year program that meets about every other Saturday. I have been affiliated with BTH for the past three years as the school year English Mentor Teacher. This summer, I have accepted a position as the Dean of Faculty for the summer school.

The teachers are bright and motivated high school and college students and they are guided, instructed, supported and evaluated by professional teachers (aka Mentor Teachers or the new term: Instructional Coaches). Breakthrough's mission is both clear and compelling; they are trying to change futures.

In order to do this in the most successful and efficient manner, they have had to enlist some of the greatest educational minds and the most recent educational research. Afterall, they have a relatively short amount of time to make an incredibly large difference in a child's life. On top of that, a class is only as successful as its teacher, and the Breakthrough interns are strong students but novice teachers. That means that we somehow have to impart to them decades of educational wisdom in our two weeks of orientation and training. YIKES!

As I participated in the two-day long conference this weekend, I realized that the Breakthrough initiative is like a crash course in educational theory. Suddenly, all the lectures and readings from my time at Rice University came flooding back to me. I'll admit that it was a little overwhelming to do this in two days, and I'm sure that the interns' head will be spinning, but the goal is a worthy one. Just having these kids in class is not nearly enough to make a difference.  They have to be consistently engaged, and the instruction has to be both systematic and rigorous.

The national trainer who came down from New Hampshire to lead the conference was both sharp and motivational. She made us want to do our best and give our all. That is the tone that I will strive for this summer as well. This is hard word. There is no doubt in my mind that the intern teachers, young, bright and idealistic, have no clue how much they are going to be challenged this summer. However, they also are not yet aware of the enormous gift that they will be giving. Some great Jewish scholar whose name temporarily escapes me (Hillel perhaps?) said, "Change a life and you change the world."

Breakthrough is trying very hard to change the world, one child at a time! If you are inspired to learn more about Breakthrough in Houston or in your own area, please google them. If your philanthropic list needs a new recipient, they would be delighted to benefit from your generosity as well :)