Caring About Schoolchildren That You Don’t Even Know

I am not a teacher by profession. Nor do I have any children of my own, which, by the way, is something that I am totally fine with, and which is quite beside the point right now anyway. :)

I am also not a home-owner. So, high U.S. property tax rates and the related school budget funding debates that go along with them have never really concerned me much.

Opening My Eyes

It would actually be quite easy for someone like me to think that the lack of resources in classrooms across the country is not an issue that is relevant to me, or that this is not a big enough issue to concern myself with, especially relative to all the other problems that I hear about on television news programs every day.

And, for some of us, it is easy to forget that schools in different areas of the country, and in different towns within the same states, have very different levels of resources available to them to use in their classrooms.

For example, if I had a kid that went to a top-rated K-12 U.S. school, one which received all the bells and whistles they could want, I would probably not even realize that children in lower-income areas didn’t have the same, regardless of the reasons or justifications either way.

Being Open to Serendipity

Sometimes serendipity finds us when we least expect it.

As I mentioned earlier, kids hadn’t been a big part of my life up until now, though I have been happy as an aunt for a number of years now.

Yet, recently my confused career path suddenly finds me in a role where it will be my job to motivate children to get excited about science. Go figure.

Additionally, along comes a fundraising contest sponsored by the prolific online personality, Tim Ferris, a board members of DonorsChoose.org, a charitable organization which supports the needs of teachers in the classroom.

While I am probably one of the least likely people to find myself drawn to supporting a cause that includes teachers, classrooms and children, I am also probably exactly the type of person that an organization like DonorsChoose.org wants or needs to reach.

An Affordable Need

One important thing that I realized as I read up about that fundraising contest and thereby looked closer at what that particular charitable organization was all about, is that many classroom resource needs are well within reach of being met by bringing the right people together.

While the collective resource needs in classrooms across the country is great, and the impact that could be made by receiving those resources is huge, in reality, the relative cost of funding those resource needs individually, especially by people like you and I, really isn’t that big at all.

DonorsChoose.org is being called the “Kickerstarter for Classrooms”. However, the project budgets at DonorsChoose are significantly lower than those on Kickstarter. At DonorsChoose.org, most project budgets come in way under $1,000 each, many averaging just over $500 (I believe), so it’s not like anyone is asking for funding to build indoor swimming pools or outdoor stadiums or ice-skating rinks at these schools.

Why Not Play a Part

Whether children play a big part in our lives our not, children are still our country’s future. Children embody the souls of those individuals who will grow up to either accept or reject what we hand down to them.

Why not enable innovative teachers who are excited about making a difference in their classrooms, those who have reached out for a little financial assistance in order to be a little more effective in their jobs, to make a more positive difference in students’ lives?

Why not donate a dollar or two to DonorsChoose.org today and support a worthy cause? Any and all contributions are sure to be appreciated by more than just me. I thank you in advance for considering this request.

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Photo Credit: title=”Day 240: Classroom in Korea” by Cali4beach