Math Teacher Sees AIM High Potential
AIM High Students are Driven to Succeed
When AIM High invited me to tutor students in math, I hesitated. My only exposure to inner-city students came from the media and painted a dismal picture of academic accomplishment. I worried that any student coming from Chicago Public Schools would be beyond my help. Instead, I found a group of kids who were completely normal in every way I could imagine. They talked about the same things my other, more affluent, students did, asked the same questions, had the same reactions to their failures and their successes. What I learned was that the kids living in the inner city were no different from kids living in mansions when it came to ability or desire. Instead, their problems all stem from outside factors. They go to schools that, quite literally, do not have teachers to teach so the students are expected to teach themselves. They live in homes without heat or food. They worry about being shot walking down the street.
The most amazing thing about the students that AIM HIGH works with is their drive to succeed. Last summer, I ran a program to help rising seniors and college freshmen get ready for college level math. When I was first told that sessions would be 3 hours minimum, I scoffed. I had no expectations that any of the students would last that long doing nothing but math. Instead, I had to drag them away from their computers to take breaks. They would not stop working for anything. The number of other kids I have seen with that kind of dedication could be counted on one hand. At AIM HIGH, they can fill an entire classroom with those kinds of students.
There is a poster in the offices of AIM HIGH that says college education should not be determined by where you are born or where you live. I believe in that idea wholeheartedly. AIM HIGH works to make sure that all children, regardless of background, race, or financial situation, can graduate college.
I see so much potential in these students. If you choose to support this program financially, you’ll be making a great investment.
Torey Cornblath