This

This coming Tuesday, we are meeting with an ELS tutor to see if she wants to work with some of the soccer team members who need some English Language tutoring. I was beginning to despair of this ever happening.

I’m excited about this program.

It took me more than a week and was much more difficult than I had imagined. The days when you posted a job up on a college bulletin board are long gone, our lives are being endlessly complicated by technology, the science that is supposed to make our lives easier.

And random postings on bulletin boards are now considered dangerous.

To find a tutor or even talk to one, I had to slug my way through college bureaucracies, online websites that take a huge chunk of the pay, technology that makes it all harder, and endless online forms that are rejected a half-dozen times,  for generally incomprehensible and unfixable reasons.

There is a college in Albany named St. Rose, it is a block away from RISSE headquarters, i called up and was told the only way to find a tutor was to fill out an online form which took an hour, asked questions I did not understand, and then the software program refused to accept my address or phone number, and repeatedly declined my offer of a job posting for an ELS (English as a second language) tutor.

It wouldn’t tell me why.

I called back several time in search of a human, and was asked to submit an e-mail message detailing my problems. I did, it was never answered.

This is a shame, as kids from St. Rose often volunteer at RISSE and I know some who love to do some tutoring there.

I asked the person who finally answered the phone the next time if I could just come down to the college and talk to students walking by, it seems that is not possible. Maybe, I said, I could just stick my head out of the window and shout at one of the kids passing by on the street.

She wasn’t amused.

I wasn’t kidding.

I admit it was disheartening to run into a wall of indifference and pointless red tape like that. I can only imagine how many people do not get help because it’s simply too complicated to arrange it — for the refugees, this process is so much more difficult. I am happy to advocate for them.

I couldn’t get anyone interested enough in the plight of these refugee children to help. Ehdiesoe has endured enough, and he needs help to make the transition to high school. He has to learn English and now. But I am reminded that this kind of work takes patience and endurance. I will willful, but not naturally patient. I am getting there.

So I  got stubborn – I was not going to lose this program this way – widened my search, went on websites, called educational testing services and several other colleges and one community college. I never did get to a human being or a tutor. One tutoring website for Albany is actually based in Ohio, and takes a 50 per cent finders fee for connecting people to a tutor.

I talked to tutors who did not have ELS certificates, who did not travel to inner-city Albany, who did not teach refugees or immigrants, who were too busy, too old, too young.

I finally found stumbled across a blog in the Albany area from an ELS tutor who has worked with refugee children, and often in inner-city Albany. The online sites charged $50 an hour, but was on her own, and she agreed to do this work for $25 an hour. She is experienced, direct and sounds quite competent.

When I asked for help for my tutoring plan for six refugee children (this is not a RISSE project, it’s my project), the Army Of Good sent a little over $1,300. Thank  you.

I talked with the prospective tutor on Friday and liked what I heard. I explained what we were looking for.

So she is coming to RISSE Tuesday to meet with Francis Sengabo, the RISSE Operations Director, Ali, and me. If it works out, and everyone is comfortable, we’ll go ahead and schedule Ehdiesoe for some tutoring, he came her from Thailand last year and is struggling to learn and write English.

I think we will push for one-on-one sessions, starting with two or three kids.

I don’t know how long the money will last, or how often the kids will be seen or how much tutoring is needed, or whether the classes will be one-on-one or broken into small groups. I favor the one-on-one. We might end up focusing on three or four kids, depending how well the tutoring goes and how long the money holds out.

I was grateful to have negotiated a $25-an-hour fee, I know I can get Ehdiesoe’s tutoring underway, his need is urgent. And we don’t know just how much help some of these children will need. We begin the project this coming week.

These kids often come to America with no knowledge of English and need some professional help. If it works out, the tutoring model could be of great help to RISSE and it’s refugee and immigrant population. Ali and the teachers could single out the children in the greatest need, and we would have some in place to step in and help.

If anyone wants to further contribute to the tutoring program, your help would be welcome, you can send a contribution to The Gus Fund (tutoring), c/o. Jon Katz P.O.Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. I think this is a wonderful way to help these children, and I am hopeful that we have found our tutor. More later.