Learning Begins at Home
An innovative principal in the Bronx uses home visits to introduce his new teachers to their students’ lives and convince parents that the school is taking the child’s future seriously.
Related:
Before the First School Bell, Teachers in Bronx Make House Calls
By Fernanda Santos
Published: September 2, 2011
JASON McCORKLE, all of 11, stepped back into his family’s living room in the South Bronx wearing the gray slacks and crisp white shirt his new teachers had just handed him, tags still dangling from a sleeve. He puffed out his chest, stuffed his hands in his pockets and flashed his pearly teeth, standing near a poster of a beachfront mansion, a five-car garage and the words ‘Justification for Higher Education’ lighted by rays of sunshine.
“Is this the first time you’ve worn a tie?” one of the teachers, Stephen Slater, asked gingerly. The burgundy strip was flush against the skin on Jason’s neck, sitting under rather than over the new shirt.
