Last night there was a pretty big thunderstorm in Cleveland. Not alarmingly big – we didn’t lose power, I was never concerned for my safety, and for me, it was more of a nuisance than anything else. After all, I wanted to go over to the student union to print a few things and make copies, and I had to wait until it stopped raining.
The parking lot right next to our dorm was flooded. I thought about moving my car, but decided not to, realizing that I would have to drive it through a lower stretch of parking lot to reach higher ground, weighing my chances. The streets just off campus were flooded too, and they looked pretty deep – watching from the windows of our dorm, we saw cars that must have sustained damage.
Around campus, the flooding cleared pretty quickly. By midnight, it was nothing but a few puddles.
The sewer drains aren’t set up to accommodate the level of rain that happened, even though it wasn’t a terribly abnormal storm.
Half of my class missed school today. From a classroom management perspective, this made things easier, but it means that half of my students missed out on a day of instruction. In speculating about why so many students were missing today, the rain was one thing that came up. A more experienced teacher said that her class was often a little empty the day after a storm, because some of the roads were flooded and students simply could not get to school.
I know that not all of my students missed because of the rain. One student, I knew about their absence in advance. A few might have been traveling for the holiday weekend. Maybe one or two were sick.
I’ve never thought of infrastructure as an educational issue before. A public health issue, of course. A transportation issue, obviously. But the reason that at least a couple of my students weren’t at school today was because there isn’t an effective system to deal with rainwater, and that’s a barrier to education that I never would have expected.
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Hey Samantha! I stumbled across your website and have been really interested in everything you write! I was an intern for TFA at Delta Institute (working in that same copy room in Nowell!) and have been placed in Rhode Island as a part of the 2017 corps. I am so encouraged hearing your experience as I look forward myself. This article in particular is something I have never even thought about, so I am enjoying learning from you. Finally, I wanted to offer a word of encouragement! I know that this work is so mentally, physically, and emotionally draining, but know that there are people out there thinking about, praying for, and sending good vibes to you all in this extremely important work. So much #DeltaLove!!
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Hi Caitlin! Thanks so much for your comment! It’s so cool that you interned at Delta Institute – thanks for your contributions to making institute happen! Thank you for your encouragement – it’s been challenging, but I’m almost done!
I feel like I’ve learned so much since being here – perspectives that I didn’t expect and issues in education that I never knew about before.
Congratulations on being admitted to the 2017 corps! I did the early admission program too, and I found it really helpful in preparing to make the move. What subject/grade level are you going to be teaching in Rhode Island?
Oh wow! It’s crazy all of the new perspectives that we get to learn about, I’ve never had a space to talk about these issues before TFA! Early admission is definitely the best. We already have a Facebook group and everyone is beyond thrilled 🙂 I actually am getting my Masters right now in Education so I will be certified for PreK-4th and Spanish/Bilingual Education, so we will see where they decide to place me!