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Saturday, August 7, 2010

High schoolers get a chance to teach urban children | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/06/2010

High schoolers get a chance to teach urban children | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/06/2010


Caitlin Eichenberg (left) works with Dayshawn Davis and Megan Fox (center) with Donovan Acetti as part of a Rowan University program that gives high school seniors a taste of urban teaching at the Lanning Square School in Camden.
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High schoolers get a chance to teach urban children

Adrienne Stewart, 17, of Burlington Township, and JasaRay Gonazalez, 8, of Camden, met for the first time last week.
It was on JasaRay's turf: Lanning Square School.
The inner-city Camden school was hosting a program to help rising seniors, like child of the suburbs Stewart, get a taste of being urban educators.
Some students - the older ones as well as the little ones - were shy, so a grown-up in charge suggested that they shake hands, a simple gesture to cross the gap between seemingly different worlds.
Stewart, the daughter of a teacher, moved closer, leaning into JasaRay's efforts to identify vowel and consonant sounds, ready to step in if she needed a hand. JasaRay, in turn, flashed an infectious smile.
"She was really cute, and she was really smart," Stewart said of her learning partner after the exercise was over.
"It was cool. She was sweet," JasaRay, an aspiring doctor, said of Stewart.
And they were just getting started.


It was the block party of all block parties at the Philadelphia School District on Friday - a 10-hour event that drew thousands of people.

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