The key thing is, even if you only have a couple of hours a month, those two hours shoulder-to-shoulder, next to one student, concentrated attention, shining this beam of light on their work, on their thoughts and their self-expression, is going to be absolutely transformative, because so many of the students have not had that ever before. Dave Eggers Read Quote
And that’s actually the brunt of what we do is, people going straight from their workplace, straight from home, straight into the classroom and working directly with the students. So then we’re able to work with thousands and thousands more students. Dave Eggers Read Quote
You know, it’s been proven that 35 to 40 hours a year with one-on-one attention, a student can get one grade level higher. Dave Eggers Read Quote
And what we were trying to offer every day was one-on-one attention. The goal was to have a one-to-one ratio with every one of these students. Dave Eggers Read Quote
But there was something psychological happening there that was just a little bit different. And the other thing was, there was no stigma. Kids weren’t going into the ‘Center-for-Kids-That-Need-More-Help’ or something like that. It was 826 Valencia. Dave Eggers Read Quote
But you know, there’s something about the kids finishing their homework in a given day, working one-on-one, getting all this attention – they go home, they’re finished. They don’t stall, they don’t do their homework in front of the TV. Dave Eggers Read Quote
So this is the space during tutoring hours. It’s very busy. Same principles: one-on-one attention, complete devotion to the students’ work and a boundless optimism and sort of a possibility of creativity and ideas. Dave Eggers Read Quote
Through the small tall bathroom window the December yard is gray and scratchy, the tree calligraphic. Dave Eggers Read Quote
I’ve never had WiFi at home. I’m too easily distracted, and YouTube is too tempting. Dave Eggers Read Quote
I don’t mean to beat a made-in-America drum, but I would be lying if I said it doesn’t feel somehow right to be printing books in the U.S. Dave Eggers Read Quote
