PLATFORM : Students at Risk Are Lost in the Crowd

There are 40 students in my English 10-B class--there were supposed to be 41, but one young man was shot in the head and died.

Even though it is a regular English class, most of the young people have abysmal reading, writing and oratorical-thinking skills.

I use all of the latest ideas on how to handle such large numbers: group work, peer tutoring, read-a-rounds, multi-ethnic, multilinguistic student-at-risk projects and assessments. But nothing magically allows me to spend time with all those students who need one-on-one tutoring, who see school as a place where one goes to fail, who think that the drug-ridden streets and the life of a gangbanger offers more than sitting in a crowded, filthy, roach-infested classroom where there are no textbooks or paper or pencils, scarce money for the copy machine, and certainly no money for aides, tutors and counselors.

And despite my efforts and those of my hard-working colleagues, without smaller class sizes and money for books, equipment and personnel, the system merely passes these children on with no real concern for them.

Oh, we do send a representative to their funerals.

Time is running out.