Coming home to summer learning

Edmund Hsu, 8, and his 11-year-old brother, Kobi Hsu, right, learn about plants and oxygen from their teacher, Deborah Wolf, who is working toward a master’s degree in teaching at Washington State University Vancouver. At Home At School is a free program that targets children from low-income and homeless families. A school bus picks up students from shelters and low-income housing. (MATT BUXTON/The Columbian)

The plants had died.

But why?

The children pressed their teacher, Deborah Wolf, for answers. She, in turn, used big words for elementary school students: chlorophyll, full spectrum light, closed ecosystem.

Forget that it was 92 degrees outside, that no one was forcing these children to be there. Or that they were sitting around a cramped desk in a windowless room with a teacher who calmly held up plastic containers of alcohol and slimy green leaves that were leaching out their greenness.

It was the second week at AHAS, short for At Home At School, a program for low-income and homeless children started by professor Susan Finley four years ago. The program takes place at Silver Star Elementary School.

"It became very personal to them to solve this problem," Wolf said. "The captivation comes with their science journals, too. They're learning how to record data. They're not just sitting back and listening to someone talk. They're searching for evidence."

(The answer, which the children appeared to understand completely, involves a complicated explanation that boils down to not enough sunlight.)

In May, Wolf started the Master in Teaching program at Washington State University Vancouver, where Finley chairs the education department. She's spent the past decade as a homemaker; before that, she worked for Federal Express. This summer, she's earning a wage, thanks to the federal stimulus, which includes money for low-income students.

Finley estimates that about two-thirds of the 300 students at AHAS are homeless or low-income; the rest come from the neighborhood or are teachers' children.

"It's about trying to prepare every child for the best academic success and the bigger things in life," Finley said. "Most kids we have do not have summers filled with the kinds of things middle-class kids get."

Research, she said, shows that middle-class children surge ahead because of summertime enrichment.

AHAS does not bill itself as a summer school, though its curriculum covers those bases. But within each class are the elements: quilting (math), bridge-making (engineering) and video (involving an unusual script called "Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich," starring WALL-E, Frankenstein, a squid and Santa Claus). There's even a class devoted to building a green classroom.

When Finley started the program, the number of Clark County youths who had been homeless at one point during the year numbered more than 1,000. School district officials say the number has increased.

Craig Lyons, executive director for the Council for the Homeless, said his agency's call center received 10,000 calls through the end of June. He expects 24,000 calls by the end of the year. By contrast, 2008 brought in 16,000 calls.

"A lot of the calls are from people who are very new to the position of having to ask for help," Lyons said. "Anyone of us can put ourselves in their shoes now. That's not been the norm. The norm has been, 'That guy's not working hard enough.' But now, it's, 'Here I am, one paycheck from being homeless. How do I ask for help?'"

Steve Rusk at the Salvation Army called Lyons about his phone system. The Salvation Army's current phone system, Rusk told Lyons, could no longer handle all the calls.

Back at Silver Star, Wolf said she's applying theory to her classroom and teaching to encourage a love of learning. Where the children come from is secondary.

In her class was the boy who made a vest for himself out of recycled materials, girls peppered their teacher with questions and the Hsu brothers, Edmund and Kobi, memorized chemistry formulas to write on the board.

"It's a wonderful rich challenge, this environment apply what we're learning in our classrooms has been worked," she said. "Those kids are so appreciative, they want to be there. They sign up for your class."

Isolde Raftery: 360-735-4546 or isolde.raftery@columbian.com.