What do you think of AmeriCorps?

A friend asked me a simple question the other day: What do you think of AmeriCorps? and I was really surprised by it. What did he mean? Which part of AmeriCorps? The program as a whole, or my specific experience? Just my job, or my whole life? Maybe it was so tough to answer because my feelings about it are so complicated.

I think what I'm supposed to do and what I actually do are pretty different. The program is ideally an in-school literacy tutoring service, where I meet with students one-on-one in my own classroom for 30 minutes every day, improving reading skills, phonics, comprehension, spelling, fluency, etc.

What really happens is kind of different. I work in other teachers' classrooms for 2/3 of the school day. I often tutor 2 or 3 kids at a time, and usually for about 20 minutes a session. Some students I only see 3 days a week, if I'm lucky. Then, my real job, the one not in the contract, comes in. AmeriCorps is involved in (or should I say, AmeriCorps IS) the after school program. I help coordinate homework tutoring, physical education, arts & crafts, and computer time. My after school group is about 9 kids. None of that part is in the grant...

I do question how the funds for this program are being used. With taxpayer dollars, this program is designed to improve students' literacy: bottom line.

But when it comes down to it, AmeriCorps itself is about doing more than what's expected of you. This school needs major help. More help than I could ever give it, and not as a literacy tutor, but as a human being. Their funding was absolutely cut for after school programs. Their teachers have an average class size of 33. The Vice Principal position was removed for budget this year. The entire district is being condemned by the state as a failing school district. I could tell you first hand that the district failing... and the people it's failing most are the children who are supposed to learn there.

So at the end of the day, What do I think of AmeriCorps? What do I think of my job? What do I think of my life? Things have been very hard. Work is definitely not what I expected, and it can be overwhelming. And I love it. At the end of the day, I think that if I've helped someone at all, in any way, then I've done my job to the best of my ability. Forget about what the grant says: I'm America's bitch for a year, and there's always more I could do...