Thursday was my first visit to T.H. Rogers School to see the McKibben Project in action. Planning for this charitable, educational program began last year. Fund-raising took place through spring and summer of this year and will continue for as long as we can keep the program going or until I run out of energy. This hands-on program, delivered through the WITS (Writers in the Schools) program, finally began in the classrooms in September and is now in its fourth month. T.H. Rogers is an HISD alternative primary and secondary school that is one-of-a-kind. Rather, it is three schools in one. Part one is the Vanguard Program for talented and gifted students; part two is the program for students with traumatic brain injury and the third component is the program for deaf students. The McKibben Project goal is to help the young deaf students learn basic literary skills and develop an enthusiasm for literature and the arts which should translate into improved grades and higher self-esteem. The students will publish their writings in an anthology, have a chance to read their work at the city-wide Young Writers Reading held each May at The Menil, and celebrate their successes in other public events during the year. Project writers are UH Creative Writing Program doctoral students from around the world, professional poets, fiction writers and playwrights who join together to lead the weekly creative writing workshops for an entire school year. Visual or performing artists join the writers to lead classes that emphasize the connection between writing and art.

Long Chu, WITS Program Director, and I sat in on two of the classes last Thursday; the second-grade class and the third-grade class. The former has a deaf teacher and a hearing assistant while the latter has a hearing-impaired teacher with a deaf assistant. It was amazing, inspiring and gratifying to watch the writers and deaf children work together. It brought back some of my old sign language training, just enough to encourage me to take a refresher course! The children work so hard to grasp the concepts. One 7-year-old Hispanic boy, deaf since birth, also has cerebral palsy, which I am told, made for some challenging work in the beginning - if you can imagine signing with cerebral palsy and trying to get others to understand your signs clearly. Yet this small boy had the same eager shyness and proud enthusiastic smile as he read his original poem, written as we observed the class. The teaching poet for this semester is Sharon who is also a playwright with two movies to her credit. She demonstrates great enthusiasm and the patience of Job. Hopefully, word will spread to everyone who really believes in the hopefulness of these students learning in this program and/or who need an annual tax deduction. We need both. When I am at the school, they introduce me as the funder of the program but I remind them that it is not just me. It is everyone who takes the time and generously donates - all of us together are the funders.