Manhattan Comprehensive Day and Night School
I am an “almost” retired university
professor now living in the New York city area.
I teach in the Fall but not the Winter. Last
January I found myself debating how I was going to bide my new found time. I very much wanted to do some volunteer work
in New York but was unsure of what to do Then, I saw a news program on PBS
called NOW hosted by David Brancaccio. That evening they featured Manhattan
Comprehensive Day and Night school, a very unique public school whose operations are coordinated both by the New York
city of Education and the non-profit organization CDI,
Comprehensive Development Inc. It was a
special public school for 17-21 year old students. The program was labeled a
“last chance” school with two high-need student groups: one, very recent
immigrants (60%) who go to day school and two, kids that had dropped out of
school (40%)) but now go at night. Many of these kids, the program emphasized,
were not making it in other types of high schools. One of the students featured
on the PBS program was a mother who was rushing to get to school while making
sure her two children were taken care of, but who was ultimately late for her
evening exam. So I saw this TV program that featured a school designed
to accommodate students’ needs, whose
students were volunteers for those programs , whose population was very much
diverse, and had an unusual partnership with a private organization whose mission it was
to assist in comprehensively meeting student
needs. I was very impressed.
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I
immediately Googled Manhattan Comprehensive Day and
Night School, and got the address. I went down the next day expecting to begin
volunteering. I met Etenesh Adnew,
volunteer coordinator
at Manhattan. She mentioned that there was a process
of volunteering and that I had to begin so that I could tutor. I would meet for a fout
week (one day a week) tutorial with Gene Laughorne at
Learning Leaders on Park
Avenue. I went
down to Learning Leaders where they evaluated my profile, did an intense
introduction into the areas that students might need help (math, ESL, global studies, history) and in
addition helped align my interests with the appropriate school. I listed Manhattan comprehensive and after a week I received my Manhattan ID and was ready to begin.
I took the train to Manhattan and walked to 14th St and Manhattan Comprehensive. When I
arrived to the school I noted an environment rather different
form my high school days: the students were speaking in many different
languages and, in some cases, wearing indigenous clothing. It was an imposing situation,
quite friendly. I was told to go to the library and meet my first student. I
got to the library a bit early and just observed the students interacting. There
were many volunteers working and assisting these kids; I was to find out later
that there were 150 volunteer tutors which created a very strong in-house
student support service.
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Then I met my first student: Emmanuel David* He told me he was from the Sudan 
and had been in the US for three
years. I said I was from Illinois and who look a bit
puzzled.. “Mr. Lavin, can you help me with my
writing-- I just can not see to get on paper what is on my mind.” He gave me
one of his writing projects which consisted of deconstructing a Washington
Irving short story--. The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I mentioned that I was living very close to
where Irving was born and if he just walked several blocks he could go to where Irving lived in Manhattan. He showed me his writing
and we had work to do. Weeks went by and hen it began to warm up a bit we met
in Stuyvesant Park and talked about and reviewed his writing project. He told many humorous
stories about Sudan and tragic anecdotes about genocidal atrocities and I told him about my high school and how I
loved the theatre here in New York. I just asked him to write about out conversations and then write about
them again. I would review his ability to write which did improve somewhat over
time but I began to realize that learning to speak a language (which Emmanuel
could do effortlessly) was very much different than analyzing events and
putting then down on paper. I met with Emmanuel on Monday and Wednesday
afternoons. I was also able to coordinate my days so I could tutor an
additional student: Shì, a recent immigrant from China (she had been
here just four months). Shi just wanted to learn English and speak English. I
had immense difficulties communicating with Shi but we managed. She wanted to listen
and ask questions about word usage. I asked her simple questions about China and she
answered as best she could.
Unfortunately, Shì left Manhattan because one of her
parents
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became seriously ill. I was assigned Ester so I tutored Emmanuel in the
afternoon and Ester in
the morning twice a week.. Ester 
was born in Uzbekistan and later emigrated to Israel and now she
has been in the US for one year. She was preparing for Regents and her short coming was
History so we spent many a Spring day talking and
discussing feudalism, the French, American, Russian. Ester was quite eager to
learn and this was a characteristic of all the students I met. I got to know
Ester and we discussed cultures and language and New York. We became friends.
She emailed me after the Regents: “It's Ester, I have passed the Global
History regents with the grade 80 and I wanted to let you know. So, I am very thenkfull for you help, you helped me well”
Bye Ester
So Manhattan Comprehensive gave
me the opportunity to do some teaching, which I enjoy, but more importantly it
provided an avenue to interact with a diverse population in which all could
share and become friends,
Michael Lavin
* Permission to include pictures
of both students was granted during tutoring sessions.