Stories
Learning to Sing
One afternoon in grade school my teacher made up a new rule: each student must finish reading a section aloud from their book before leaving the classroom that day. I couldn’t make it through a page. I was stuttering so badly. Then to add to my embarrassment, I caused my classmates to miss their bus.
Read MoreKrysta Grangeno: “Expanding quality access is imperative.”
Reporters with the Higher Education Channel interviewed a number of the Tomorrow Builders earlier this month to learn more about their efforts to reimagine and redesign our region’s early childhood education system to be more equitable.
Read MoreI’m calling on my neighbors to improve our schools, our homes | The St. Louis American
You’re looking at a miracle. I had open heart surgery and two strokes. I wanted to volunteer in retirement, but I never got a chance to because I kept staying sick. So once my youngest grandchild started school, I decided it was time to go do something. I told myself, “I’m not an old lady. I’m 61.”
Read MoreChildren are not problems to be solved, but humans to be loved | The Belleville News-Democrat
There’s the person you are, and then there’s the person people see. And for me growing up, there was always a big gap between one and the other. In school, people knew me for my behavior problems.
Read MoreA Conversation Between Longtime Eastside Residents, Marie and Sam
Our children are our future champions. Strip away the bad roads, the politics, the economics, and they are what East St. Louis is made of. We’ve got to make sure they’re acknowledged and recognized and taught that they are geniuses—that they can be proud of the place they’re from.
Read MoreWhy I care about East St. Louis public schools | The St. Louis American
Students show up to school with the trauma of systematic racism on their shoulders and are just expected to grow in an environment that doesn’t value them as human beings.
Read MoreTake it from this SLPS Parent: We need to talk about school funding | The Riverfront Times
Before starting at Gateway Middle seventh grade I was forced into motherhood. I had to figure out how to balance school and still have a child. One day I was Smart Alexis, and then all of a sudden I was Alexis with the Baby.
Read MoreMy fight for better budgets and better schools for all SLPS kids | The St. Louis American
Growing up, my sphere of reference was pretty much limited to 10 blocks around where I lived in North St. Louis. I went to Farragut Elementary School. Then I studied at Williams Middle School eight blocks away. For high school I attended Beaumont four blocks away. It was like I lived in a city inside of a city.
Read MoreVisioning Our Futures through Courageous Conversations
As part of our Engage Community programming, we are partnering with Black Futures Lab on the Black Census Project. Kristen Trudo, St. Louis field organizer with the Black Census Project, reflects on the Project’s recent community organizing training in Atlanta.
Read MoreOn Reading Out loud and Encouraging Imagination
One afternoon in grade school my teacher made up a new rule: each student must finish reading a section aloud from their book before leaving the classroom that day. I couldn’t make it through a page. I was stuttering so badly. Then to add to my embarrassment, I caused my classmates to miss their bus.
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