5th December 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A church group in Winter Haven in the US has taken it upon themselves to try and pick up the educational slack in their local area, following the budget cuts that are hitting schools so hard. Reported on the Newschief website, Beymer United Methodist Church tutor 10 students each day using volunteer tutors from around the county.
Marietta Jennings, the tutor director described the programme. Each student is specially selected from their school, after being identified as needing to improve their reading. The students are picked up after school, fed, given 15 minutes where they are read to, before splitting into one to one groups with their tutor, where the students have to read themselves. At the end of the lesson, the students are driven home.
Marietta feels that all aspects of the lessons are important, because the children are often tired after school, and need food before studying more. She also said that without the transportation from school, and back home afterwards, many of the children could not take advantage of the opportunity. Marietta also endorsed the value of reading to the children before beginning lessons, because she said that it’s important for the students to hear the written word.
The tutors are generally volunteers who see the value of the church project. They, along with the school teachers can vouch for the improvements the tutoring programme is making. The teachers see the students’ results improving throughout the year, and the tutors say that they often see ‘a light go on’ in a student’s head, and then they improve dramatically.