Writing on the Wall

NEA Today, Mar 2004 by Hiraoka, Leona

I may be wrong-and I'm sure you, our readers, will let me know-in believing that penmanship is tremendously egalitarian. It doesn't definitively reveal a student to be rich or poor, studious or not, or boy or girl (OK, until ,,« you see little hearts dotting the I's). It's only the words themselves that offer clues about the author. And recently, we received word from students in West Virginia that told us a lot. ¶ For the holidays, NEA employees donated hundreds of toys, books, and school supplies, plus money for food vouchers to students in poor areas. In mid-December, the unwrapped gifts were delivered to West Virginia's Kimball Elementary, among others, and laid out for the children. Now, anyone who's been to, say, a mall would reflexively fear that chaos would ensue. But no, the children were quiet, contemplative, as they walked among the gifts. One child selected supplies that could be shared with a sibling, a packet of barrettes (and was gently sent back to choose a toy, too). Another took only a few pieces from a building set before being told he could have the whole package.¶ "Thanks for my game," wrote one little girl in a packet of thank-yous sent to NEA. "I chose this because I had been wanting that. You are a blessing to us because I would not have got any toys."¶ "Thank you for the gift," wrote another. "I play with it. I put it back in the box when I'm done. And I hope you come back to our school again. The stars will shine for you!"¶ These children, rich in spirit, were poor in pocket. But if you were to post their writings on a wall, at first glance the poverty of their situation would be masked. Their handwriting was as nice as any seen in schools in middle-class or wealthy areas. Maybe it's that kind of superficial scrutiny of school situations that's led politicians to fall short on funding for Head Start and the Elementary and secondary Education Act (see page 10), which will shortchange millions of poor children.¶ We here at NEA felt great that we brightened a holiday by whipping out our credit cards a few extra times. But helping these children on a larger scale, by working to change laws and get adequate funding for education and conveying your frontline issues to policy makers and the public, is what drives us year-round. And the letters from Kimball Elementary students have spurred us on-because we can read their writing on the wall.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LEONA HIRAOKA