MAYOR MANNY DIAZ HITS THE CLASSROOM TO TEACH CHILDREN ABOUT GOVERNMENT

 

-MAYOR PARTICIPATES IN TEACH FOR AMERICA WEEK TO PROMOTE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY-

 

October 25, 2004 - (Miami, FL) - City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz participated in Teach For America Week on Monday, October 25, 2004 by teaching a third-grade class of students at Holmes Elementary School in Miami.

Joining Mayor Diaz was Dr. Marvin Dunn, author, historian and Florida International University professor. Dr Dunn taught a course at Miami’s Liberty City Elementary.  The events were coordinated to spotlight the need to expand educational opportunity and to inspire students to pursue education to attain their life goals. 

 

“I always enjoy being around children.  They offer an innocence and excitement about the world that is refreshing,” said Mayor Diaz. “I have the utmost respect for the job that teachers do and I commend Teach For America for helping fill a void in our educational system.”

 

Mayor Diaz’s lesson planned consisted of a lecture on the structure of the City of Miami and an explanation of the different departments the City is composed of.  Students also discussed different scenarios that citizens routinely face and how they would be best able to utilize municipal resources. Among the highlights was during the question and answer session when a student asked Mayor Diaz: “If you’re here who is running the City?”

 

The event was inline with the Mayor’s Mentoring Initiative – a commitment to improve the grades and quality of life for the children who attend schools in the City of Miami. Launched in December of 2003, the Mayor’s Mentoring Initiative calls on a number of local agencies to take an active interest in the education of our children.  Holmes Elementary School was chosen as the first site for the program. Recently awarded was a 21^st Century Community Learning Center grant that will provide intensive academic and enrichment opportunities in an after school program for 150 students at Holmes. 

 

Teach For America has placed 6 teachers at Holmes Elementary School for the 2004-05 school year. Teach for America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to ensure that all children in this nation have an equal chance in life.

 

Teach For America Week is the annual nationwide event in which leaders from all professions spend an hour of their time teaching children from some of our lowest income communities. Each year, dozens of politicians, business leaders, athletes, performers, community activists, and other prominent individuals serve as guest teachers in the schools where Teach For America corps members teach.

 

Since Teach For America placed its first 500 corps members in classrooms in 1990, approximately 12,000 outstanding college graduates have joined its movement to eliminate educational inequity. By the fall of 2004, corps members will teach in 22 locations in underserved communities across the country. For more information on Teach For America, please visit: http://www.teachforamerica.org/.

 

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