The Leaven

Learning to Like School

We tend to measure the success of our tutoring program on how much better our students perform in school. But sometimes we can measure success on a much more basic and critical level: teaching a student to simply like school.

Sean came to The Leaven as a Kindergartner—bringing with him more anger and frustration than any of us might experience in a lifetime. Severely abused by his father, and witnessing his mother fall to the same fate, Sean found little joy in anything life brought him. He hated school, refused to do his homework, and would get extremely mad—sometimes violent—when he lost in games. As Sean entered the first grade, his father was arrested and put in jail for abusing his family.

Each day Sean came to tutoring posed another difficult day for staff and volunteers to get him to sit down and do his homework. But Sean kept coming to the center, and The Leaven began to slowly help Sean make an extraordinary transformation. Sean began to calm down, listen to the adults who were working with him, have some fun during tutoring sessions—and instead of learning how to spell better or add, Sean learned to like school.

Now in second grade, Sean tells the tutors at The Leaven he likes school, and shows more interest in his homework. He still deals with anger problems occasionally, but has learned how to walk away when he is angry, sit down, and wait for an adult to come and talk to him. Sean has also become a great helper at the center, helping to clean up at the end of the day, and really found a place here at the Leaven. And The Leaven is very proud to have a place for Sean.

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