Taste of Providence – At 69, She’s Still Making a Difference

By JUSTIN AMOAH Special to The Journal

Editor’s note: Students in an advanced feature writing class at Brown University were assigned to write a feature story about something that conveys a sense of place. The project, now in its eighth year, presents aspects of city life from the perspective of college journalism students.

* * *

Jeannette Smith, who has 11 children of her own, is a teacher’s aide at the Lillian Feinstein Elementary School. A teacher and principal agree she makes a difference in the education of second graders.

* * *

PROVIDENCE – Inside Robert Allen’s second grade classroom at Lillian Feinstein Elementary School, a boy in baggy blue jeans and a black T-shirt gets up from his seat and dribbles a basketball.

“Stop! This is not a playground. Pay attention to Mr. Allen,” says 69-year-old Jeannette Smith.

Throughout the day, other students try some antics. They ask Allen if they can go to the bathroom or to the water fountain, but these are excuses to roam the halls. Smith chases after them and escorts them back to class.

When Allen isn’t looking, some students fling pink erasers across the room, hitting unsuspecting classmates in the head. Smith spots them and says they will be staying indoors for recess.

Every weekday, Smith, who works for Westbay Community Action Partnership, assists Allen and his second grade students at Feinstein School on Sackett Street in Elmwood.

The senior aide training and employment program was launched in 1966 by Westbay, a nonprofit organization that trains elderly residents for employment by giving them a one-year, part-time, paid community service job. Applicants must be 55 or older, reside in Washington, Kent or Providence counties, and meet federal low- income guidelines.

Feinstein serves students from kindergarten through grade 5; 73 percent Hispanic and Latino. Many of the classes are bilingual.

Smith lives in the neighborhood and takes a bus to school at 8:30 a.m. every weekday. She said she decided to become a senior aide at Lillian Feinstein because she wanted to fill the void left by her grown children.

She is one of two senior aides at the school. The other, Gloria Reyes, works in a bilingual classroom.

Smith is a native of Praga, Portugal. She has graying, crimped black hair and crow’s feet at the corners of her mouth and eyes. Her mother died in Portugal when she was just 5 years old, and she moved to Hartford, Conn., with her father when she was 7.

At 15, she had her first child. Now, 54 years later, she’s the proud mother of 11 children.

Smith moved to Rhode Island in 1957, where she raised all her children as a single parent. They received high school diplomas and many have moved on to own their own homes and businesses. Three of her children graduated from college and one is getting a second degree in computer science in Texas.

One daughter is a real estate agent in New York City. Another is a nursing assistant in San Antonio, Texas. Her sixth child, Jeannette, is a fourth grade teacher in Georgia.

Smith said she worked hard to lay a good foundation for her children, and she’s trying to do the same for the students in Allen’s classroom, where she has worked since February.

When her children were growing up, Smith was a nurse in a hospital in Hartford, but she attributes much of her parenting skills to her daughter Patricia, who was born with cerebral palsy. “I had to learn a lot of tools to teach her,” Smith said.

After Patricia was born, Smith always took time to attend PTA meetings.

Former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. named her the Mother of the Year in 1977 for her volunteer work at her youngest child’s elementary school.

Smith also helped out in the Head Start program, a child development program that prepares low-income children for school. All of her children were enrolled in the program.

“The education of today is learning the emotions of the classroom,” she said. “In my classroom right now, they need a lot of love and tender care.”

Smith believes that it is her responsibility to act as a friend, teacher and role model for the 22 students.

The average age for a second grade student is 7. But some in Allen’s class are 10.

Allen said some of his students have been held back once or twice. Sometimes, he said, some advanced to the next grade even though they were unprepared.

Allen, a soft-spoken man with a long beard who comes to school every day dressed in a black coat and soft black hat, has been teaching for 17 years. He moved to Feinstein this year after a stint at Anthony Carnevale Elementary School in the Hartford neighborhood. On Wednesday nights, he teaches Hebrew to fifth grade students at Temple Sinai, a Jewish Reform congregation in Cranston.

Allen said some of his students come from homes that have an absent parent and homes where English is not the primary language.

He said sometimes students act up because they aren’t getting attention at home. Quoting the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a theologian, Allen said, “The greatest human need is to be needed.”

All human beings are just looking to understand their place in the world, he said. “Human beings, we all want to interact with others. One of the worst things is the silent treatment. These kids all want attention, and they would rather have negative attention than no attention at all,” he said. “The challenge is to give them positive attention and that is what Mrs. Smith helps me do.”

Allen said some students have trouble doing second-grade work. A typical question they struggle with: John has seven marbles. His sister gives him three more. His brother gives him four. His uncle gives him six. How many marbles does John have now?

Allen said only about 7 of his 22 students are able to consistently solve problems such as these. He said that most of his students are capable of doing the arithmetic, but some get intimidated because they have difficulty reading or comprehending the questions.

Each weekday, one out of the four hours that Smith spends in the classroom is dedicated to addressing the students’ unwillingness to do school work. She takes students aside to help them individually with reading and math. She often works with some of the worst- behaved students in the classroom.

Allen said that with Smith attending to misbehaving students, he is able to work closely with other students who are having trouble.

According to this year’s New England Common Assessment Program results, 46 percent of students at Lillian Feinstein School are substantially below proficient in reading, 53 percent are substantially below proficient in math and 39 percent are substantially below proficient in writing.

According to Mercedes Torres, the principal at Lillian Feinstein, the extra attention that students get from senior aides is helping to address the test results.

Last year, Lillian Feinstein was one of just four elementary schools in Providence that met improvement targets in English, writing and math.

But Smith believes there is still a long way to go because of some students’ resistance to learning. “I don’t believe some of these kids understand the concept of learning,” she said. “These kids have a tendency of getting bored a lot. I try to make subjects in the books more enjoyable.”

Smith believes she must provide tough love. “These kids are tough cookies, but I’m stern with them. I have to be,” she said. “These kids are smart, don’t get me wrong. They can read, do the arithmetic and spell very well, but they refuse to obey the rules.”

Sometimes Smith has to raise her voice and take candy away from students who are misbehaving or keep them indoors during recess. Allen said, “She might get on the kids in a way that seems a little bit harsh, but in the long run, it can be productive for the kids and help put them in their place.”

Smith rewards students who do their work and respect their peers by giving them candy, one-arm hugs and pats on the back.

Renee Grant-Kane, the literacy coach at the school, said there has been a “big turn-around” since Smith started working in Allen’s classroom. “She has been a good, nurturing role model and parental figure,” she said. “The kids have been able to attend more to instruction with her in the room.”

Smith enjoys staying active and is preparing to take a test so she can work as a full-time teacher’s assistant at the school.

(c) 2006 Providence Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.