I continued office work today. I spent most of my morning organizing a shelf that was full of random learning tools, such as math books and flashcards. It's disorganization, however, made it impossible to make good use of these tools, so I made labels and placed the books and cards in a better order. Then I had to shred papers with personal information of students who have participating in the program in the past. Because El Centro is located within the grounds of a public park, the trash bins that we used can be accessed by anyone, so we make sure that we discard this type of paperwork properly. After doing some of this basic office work, I had to call parents whose children have participated in the summer school program in that past, but who have not been enrolled this year. This is a way to try get our numbers up and make sure that enough students are participating in the program. Unfortunately, many of the parents that I spoke with indicated that their child cannot participate this year because they have to attend summer school at their own schools in order to make up a class. It's unfortunate because that means that students from these mainly low-income families continue to do poorly academically. I think it's an interesting pattern and I wonder how many of these cases are due to individual lack of effort, and how many are due to social issues. My studies at Dickinson have highlighted this issue of poor academic performance as a result of growing up in an under-served community, and it is quite sad to see it live. I have hope that I can be a positive influence to some of these students during my time with them this summer.