Freedom School: ‘Reading is not just opening a book'

Kindred Durant was perched on a stool Monday, surrounded by eight rising sixth graders brimming with energy and anecdotes, trying to focus their attention on the themes of a story poem.

I think we need to read this one more time because I dont think we fully understand what the poem says, said Durant, a recent USC graduate who will begin teaching full time in August.

The youngsters, all rising students at W.A. Perry Middle School, werent hesitant about reading out loud or dissecting the images, even as they got creatively sidetracked by stories of the occasional neighborhood confrontation, the epistemological meaning of whats up, bro and whether it is appropriate to cultivate boyfriends and girlfriends in middle school.

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Welcome to Columbias first Freedom School, a project of the Childrens Defense Fund that aims to enhance reading skills even as it instills a message that middle school students have big contributions to make if they are willing to put in the time to excel.

Durant, one of 11 motivational interns, was happy when the kids chimed in with strong opinions about the book.

He puts in more angry words than the other one, Shakiyah Craig, 11, said of the poetic narrator.

He says do your thing, be yourself, said Deshon Thomas, also 11.

USC education professor Tambra Jackson is the creative force behind the five-week Columbia summer school, which is offered free to 110 middle school students. She remembers her own exhilarating experience in 1996 as a Freedom School intern while she was a student at Miami University in Ohio.

For me, it sealed the deal that education is what I wanted to do, Jackson said. After Jackson joined the USC education faculty in 2006, she began lobbying potential community and corporate sponsors who might be willing to contribute toward the $106,000 it takes to run a summer Freedom School. There are currently 130 Freedom School sites in 27 states, seven in South Carolina.

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Freedom School: ‘Reading is not just opening a book'