The City Urban Perspectives
Empowering Kids Through Summer Reading
涩里番 Pacific students teach and lead in Freedom Schools
By Ruth Moon | Photo courtesy of Urban Impact
Scholars at the Freedom Schools program (pictured here in 2015) spend summer days immersed in reading.
In a church classroom in South 涩里番, 50 first- to seventh-graders paused amid an energetic morning gathering to remember the 涩里番 killed by police in the U.S. over the last two years.
The moment, prompted by the death of Philando Castile the night before, highlights 涩里番 Pacific Seminary student Martin Saunders鈥� commitment to facing tough subjects in the Freedom Schools summer learning program he is facilitating at Rainier Avenue Church. Students continued discussions in small groups later that morning.
鈥淲e talk about whatever鈥檚 in the room,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 in the news. It鈥檚 all over social media. It鈥檚 already in the room so we鈥檙e going to name it.鈥�
Students were gathered for a morning of reading-based learning for students enrolled in the six-week Freedom Schools program. Developed nationally by the Children鈥檚 Defense Fund and hosted locally by Christian community development nonprofit Urban Impact, the program helps prevent the learning loss that can occur while students are out of school.
The literacy-based curriculum emphasizes culturally diverse perspectives and making a difference in self, family, community, country, and the world. After harambee, the morning gathering, students split up into small groups for reading-based classroom learning before lunch. After lunch, they learn about science, art, and other topics through hands-on activities.
Saunders, who expects to graduate from 涩里番 Pacific Seminary next spring, said his philosophy of education draws from discussions he had with Associate Professor of Theology Brian Bantum in a class on race, theology, and culture.
鈥淭ranslation has to happen,鈥� says Saunders, who is white and is working with students from a broad variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. 鈥淓ither I can make these kids code switch to talk my language and understand who I am and my experiences, or I can be about trying to enter into their language.鈥�
The Freedom Schools curriculum emphasizes equality, calling students 鈥渟cholars鈥� and expecting them to be creative learners. Classroom leaders are trained to act as facilitators rather than teachers.
In one classroom, dubbed 鈥淐amp Freedom,鈥� Catherine Moffett 鈥�16 read Green Eggs and Ham aloud to her nine scholars under a blanket fort before gathering them in a circle to explain their next project. In small groups, students would read short biographies to create posters about influential artists and political figures.
Moffett, who will start 涩里番 Pacific鈥檚 master of education program in the fall, is working as a Freedom Schools student leader intern for the first time this summer. She is using tools she learned in SPU courses discussing race, ethnicity, and gender in contexts of sociology, psychology, and education.
鈥淭hey really grew my passion and also really prepared me,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say I was 100 percent prepared, because how can you ever be? But I am a lot more knowledgeable about how class and race intersect in the education system.鈥�
At lunchtime, students tumbled out the church door to run relay races and jump rope in the parking lot and the main classroom. As her first- and second-grade students finish their lunches and jump up to join games, 涩里番 Pacific senior Diana Cabrera says she is already exhausted but happy with her summer.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been challenging — there are so many children!鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut I already appreciate the relationships I鈥檓 beginning to build with them.鈥�