Urban Education

Wow. Time flies. I intended to post to this blog on a regular basis, but here it is, seven days after we left Grand Rapids and I'm writing my first post.

Chicago was great. We explored the loop during our first weekend. We visited four schools: three Christian schools and one public school. We met great administrators and teachers and students as we learned about each school's journey of educating kids living in the urban environment. Each school has its own interesting story (we visited Chicago West Side Christian, Daystar Christian, Pui Tak Christian, and Waters Elementary). We learned that urban education is complex, that urban education defies one definition, and that being 'resourced' means many things.

I'm writing this post from a lobby area of the third floor of the men's living section of the Milwaukee Rescue Mission (MRM). We arrived in Milwaukee yesterday afternoon, introduced ourselves to the folks at Cross Trainers Academy, and settled into our lodgings at MRM. The women have relatively comfortable digs while Nate and I are in spartan rooms. In fact, the mission was ready for Nate and me and we had to borrow linens from the women. We made due, however, and had a decent night's sleep.

We leave for the day at Cross Trainers Academy (CTA) in about thirty minutes. We want to get there in time to help the staff serve breakfast to the students - who arrive about 7:15. The school day begins at 8:00 am (and ends at 2:30 pm).

Pray that we learn from our experience and that this phase of our experience goes well.

Until later.

ps