My Favorite Second Grade Class

I just put "Rajah and the Big Blue Ball" to bed. It is the first in the series of six children's books under contract to PM Moon Publishers, Limited.
It is not a big book or a complicated book, but it was originally written for one of my favorite group of children, in my favorite classroom.

As I look through the media kit from my publisher, I could not help but to think back to my wonderful students.

Community

The community is on the lower west side of Cleveland, Ohio, seven miles from downtown, on the north border of the District. The neighborhood is one of the oldest in Cleveland, founded in 1809, and is considered run-down. The mean monthly income is $800.00, and a full 85% of all residents receive some sort of financial assistance. The racial/ethnic make-up mirrors that of the school itself. The community routinely votes Democratic (when they vote since the average voter turn out is about 20%), and the current elected state representatives are Democrats.

The District

It is the largest district within Ohio. Located in the northeast section of Ohio, it is on the shores of Lake Erie, but separated east and west by the Cuyahoga River. The east side of the Cleveland District is 75% black, 10% white, 10% Hispanic, and 5% other. The west side of the District is comprised of 65% white, 20% Hispanic, 10% African-American, 3% children of mixed parentage, and 2% other. The socioeconomic conditions within the district range from poverty level to professional parents with college degrees. 45% of the total families in the District own their homes.
The average number of children per family in the district was four.

Ths School

The classroom was a model school for the District. Although the school first opened its doors eighty-four years ago (in 1924), it was the first year that this school had been K-8. As such, most of the 65 teachers were new to the school. I was new to the school.

Located in the middle of what is still considered a particularly dangerous inner-city neighborhood of a large metropolitan city, all of our students were considered disadvantaged. The families in our school were at or slightly above poverty level.
Most of the children come from single parent families, or were living with foster or adoptive families, but many have extensive support systems through a lattice of extended family within the same household, or within walking distance of the school.

There is little home ownership in this neighborhood (>1%), different from the district at large, and most of the families were renters of single family or duplex homes. The parents showed a true interest in their children's education, unlike the concerns expressed by teachers at other schools. This was evident by the high rate of parent participation in school activities, report card pick up, and teacher conferences. In addition to which, a full 63% of the parents were they, themselves, involved in some sort of educational pursuit. The racial/ethnicity mix of the school differed from other parts of the district in that the community was 11% African- American, 45% white, 35% Hispanic, 7% children of mixed ethnic background, and 3% other. The average number of children per household was six.
There were 21 students in my classroom. The students gender division was 12 girls and nine boys. The youngest student in this second grade classroom was still seven, and her birthday was in June. The oldest student was already 10 years old, and took medication for ADHD. There was one other student who also received medication for ADHD.

There were no discipline problems even though two children were under psychiatric care. One student had seizures, and one student had severe asthma.

Of the 21 students, two were African-American, one was Asian Indian, five students were Hispanic, one was of mixed black/white ethnicity, and the remaining 13 students were white.

It was for these children that I wrote "Rajah and the Big Blue Ball". It was from their "Tell Me a Story" time that this book evolved.

So why am I writing about all of this? This teacher had students who live well below the poverty line, and many of them were not living with parents. In addition some of my students did not have English as their primary language. And yet, one of the unifying and comforting times for all the students was our story time.

Some students in the classroom were the subject of custody battles by their parents, and another student watched as one of his cousins was shot in the head by a drive-by shooter. The child was so traumatized by the sight of blood and neural material splattered all over him, that he did not speak for six months. But when he did, he asked me to tell him a story.
And the story I told was "Rajah and the Big Blue Ball".

Dr. Mosetta M. Penick Phillips-Cermak