Placing children first.

Good morning, America, how are you?

Say, don't you know me? I'm your native son

I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans 

I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

These words and the vigorously haunting tune of Steve Goodman's song that was made popular by Arlo Guthrie have been with me during most of my waking hours since Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005. The storm decimated coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in a swath of land about the size of England. We know now that Hurricane Katrina is the costliest storm to strike the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org). We all wanted to know about the welfare of the children and families displaced immediately after the storm, and now, much later, we hold many questions about how so many dreadful things happened in connection with Katrina.

After my initial search for family, friends, and professional colleagues, I began trying to gain a better understanding of the incredible trauma Katrina represented for children. I learned about the economic, political, and social effects of Katrina, yet at first found little or no explicit mention of children. I expected children to be at the top of every list, and the focus of every story. But you and I know the reality: children are only at the top of our lists, the center of our attention, and foremost in our concern when we place them there. The teachers, parents, and grandparents are the ones to give children the important place they deserve.

Armed with renewed determination and a refined searching strategy, I placed children first in my searching process and soon became aware of many encouraging initiatives for children, some of which were already in place before Katrina and some that have been brought about by Katrina. One of the latter is a Web site concerned with immediate wants and needs: http://hurricanehelpforschools.gov/schools/. This site gives school names and needs by state, which is quite helpful for those eager to give assistance. Two other initiatives that you may already know about, but that are worth mentioning, are UNICEF School-in-a-Box and The Algebra Project. UNICEF School-in-a-Box offers immediate aid until more permanent solutions can become realized, while The Algebra Project offers children a lifetime of opportunities. Each of these initiatives deserves closer attention.

UNICEF School-in-a-Box contains supplies for one teacher and up to 40 students. In addition to books, pencils, erasers, and scissors, the kit also includes a wooden teaching clock, plastic cubes for counting, and a set of three laminated posters (alphabet, multiplication, and number tables). Using a locally developed teaching guide and curriculum, teachers can establish makeshift classrooms almost anywhere. Over the past five years, the School-in-a-Box has been used extensively all over the world. Many of these school boxes have been sent to areas devastated by Katrina.

The Algebra Project, originated by Robert Moses in the 1970s, develops and implements curricular interventions that build on experiences students find interesting--and understand intuitively--to help them shift froth arithmetical to algebraic thinking. This initiative attacks poverty at its base and works to ensure that not even the poorest child is left behind because of low mathematical literacy. Teachers use inquiry-based teaching strategies that build on students' concrete experiences, then coach them to construct new experiences that will help them find answers by asking increasingly sophisticated questions. The Algebra Project is a vehicle for implementing the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The working papers and committee reports for this effort, and explicit suggestions about New Orleans, can be read at www.qecr.org.

ACEI member Gloria Hearn and other ACEI colleagues shepherd the Task Force for Children's Art in Alexandria, Louisiana. They have been tenacious in their efforts to give children opportunities to make art as a means of expressing their fears and dreams. The group plans to share some of the children's artwork at the ACEI 2006 conference in San Antonio.

Education in emergencies, chronic crises, and early reconstruction is a necessity that call be both life-sustaining and life-saving. It sustains life by offering structure, stability, and hope for the future during a time of crisis, particularly for children and adolescents. It also helps to heal bad experiences, build skills, and support conflict resolution and peace building. Education in emergencies saves lives by directly protecting against exploitation and harm and by disseminating key survival messages, such as for landmine safety or HIV/AIDS prevention. Education in emergency situations, however, is often not seen as a humanitarian priority but rather as a long-term development activity. Education must be recognized as one of the key pillars of humanitarian assistance, along with food and water, shelter, and health care (www.ineesite.org).

Dr. Victor Carrion, a child psychiatrist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University and director of its early life stress research program, explained that living through an event like Katrina "is something terrible developmentally." Although children respond to trauma differently, "school is a very good thing" for all of them, he said. "As soon as possible, you want to make sure you establish some kind of routine" [electronic news brief].

Douglass Elementary in Houston, Texas, a cinderblock school, closed in May 2005 because of declining enrollment. Its main goal now is to provide children displaced from the storm affected region, who range from kindergartners to 5th-graders, with a normal day. The school marquee proclaims, "Welcome Little Angels to Your Land of Learning." A bulletin board in the hallway that says "Louisiana Proud" soon will display the students' photos. Forty teachers have been hired at Douglass, including eight from New Orleans who fled their homes too. Counselors and nurses are at the ready [electronic news brief].

Remember the media coverage of 9-year-old Charles Evans, the precocious youngster ready to be tested for the gifted program at his school in New Orleans, now displaced by Katrina? I hear his thoughtful questions, "[Those people have] no home, no shelter. What are they going to do? What are we going to do?" Will Charles Evans and children like him have an opportunity to participate in the Algebra Project soon?

New Orleans native son Wynton Marsalis has asked us to "dig down deep into our souls and remember that New Orleans is the only city in the world with a full culture; people there are feeling loss deeper than pain ... pain is quantifiable." We will remember these words as we work to improve conditions for Katrina children and families.

I understand that ACEI colleagues also understand and are poised to do whatever we can to assist each other in our work to advocate for the well-being of children, not only the children of Katrina, but also for the children of the world. Thank you for your tireless volunteer work for children and families that is given, in addition to your regular professional responsibilities.

Kind regards & dreams of peace, Jeanie Burnett, ACEI President