Poor Little Lost Souls

For the last few years we have been coaching first graders from Philadelphia's Sheppard School, located in our poorest ZIP code. These are kids that hardly have homes, let alone parents that read to them, or support the idea that learning matters. Aside from their teachers, we are, in many cases, the only people that tell them that reading is important.
So much for blaming the teachers and the schools.
Sometimes we make a lot of progress, sometimes we don't, but it is always good to try.
Here is Luis, my kid, diagnosed last month as autistic, who speaks a language all his own. He can read some, does numbers well, and loves his watch and can tell time with it-

Connie has three girls, who are doing pretty well, at least some of the time-

These are the kids our state's politicians have left behind, hoping they will just go away. They won't, I hope.