You can't solve a problem at the same level of mind that created it - Einstein

Terry Edlin of the

quoted Einstein in her piece on Education in in

yesterday, arguing that "you can't solve a problem at the same level of mind that created it." In other words, we can't count on the government to fix our education crisis in America. After years and years of failed policy like "No Child Left Behind," they just seem to make things worse. We also shouldn't "expect schools to pick up the slack for parents who are stretched very thin." Pointing fingers at both of them, as so many like to do, has not been effective either. Terry proposes that we need to "begin to think of creative ways to support our communities."

Edlin cites education historian

who theorizes that "Poor children… simply face too many problems outside the classroom. If you don’t buttress whatever happens in school with social and economic changes that give kids a better chance in life and put their families on a more stable footing, then schools alone are not going to solve the problems of poor student performance. There has to be a range of social and economic strategies to support and enhance whatever happens in school."

(T/MC) promotes tutoring/mentoring programs as one such "creative buttress," and Mapping For Justice makes

to build new and better Tutor/Mentor Programs, and help "give kids a better chance in life and put their families on a more stable footing."

Coincidentally, I've been working on some new maps, using newly-released "failing school" data from 2009, poverty data from the last census, and the

locations of currently-operating Tutor/Mentor Programs in

Look at the map above to explore patterns between poverty and elementary schools where students are not making "adequate yearly progress" according to government testing policy.

Where is the high poverty? Where, in relation, are clusters of poorly performing schools? How many (or few) programs are available in the neighborhoods where these conditions exist?

We can easily assume that the total number of students attending the number of public elementary schools in this map far exceeds the capacity of the mentoring programs known to be currently pairing volunteer mentors with elementary school aged students.

If you are open to

to increase student learning... and that mentoring can help ease the

... and that the future of our city's economic and social health need creative and fresh solutions to these problems... then it should be a no-

! Head to the

website and learn how you can get involved or donate to this cause.