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Helping Students, Touching Lives
November/December 2006
by Peter Dickinson '60

Peter Dickinson, president of the Yale Club of Chicago, has been a tutor at the Elihu Yale Elementary School since 1998. Before retirement, he worked in book publishing, management consulting, and executive search.

In the spring of 1997, Richard Pinto '48, a director of the Yale Club of Chicago, learned about the existence of the Elihu Yale Elementary School in Englewood, one of Chicago’s most economically disadvantaged communities. Pinto persuaded the club to adopt the school as a project. Tutoring in the school has evolved over the past eight years into a highly rewarding endeavor, both to the students at the Yale School and to approximately 75 alumni who have participated in the effort.

Early in our experience at the Yale School, some teachers were skeptical about having outsiders in their classrooms. We suspect that some were concerned about having their authority undermined or about the possibility that tutors might report negatively on the academic or disciplinary challenges in their rooms. However, over the years we have proved ourselves to be supportive partners in their classrooms. Today Yale Club tutors are considered valuable resources, and our program is very much part of the fabric of the school.

For the 2006-2007 school year we expect to have 12 to 15 tutors in the school. Working with the principal, we assign tutors each fall to specific teachers and their classrooms for the duration of the school year. Tutors typically visit the school once a week for two to three hours; several tutors commit to two days a week. Our focus is on helping children improve their reading and math skills, though we also help with science and social studies. Tutor/mentors also share their experiences and insights into subjects, values, and lifestyles.

In addition to our tutoring/mentoring activities, Yale Club members have provided considerable enrichment, sponsoring field trips, bringing in a music educator, repairing and upgrading computer equipment, and serving as “principal for a day.” The club also has donated athletic equipment, winter clothing, and books to the school.

For the past seven years, I have served as a teacher’s aide, as much as a tutor, in third and fourth grade classrooms. Being retired, I have the time to visit the school two days a week. In addition, every year I have participated in the eight-week summer school program. Getting to know these kids has been a great source of pleasure, and I have found most of the teachers to be nurturing and dedicated. It is gratifying that most of the children really want to learn and succeed, sometimes in spite of dysfunctional home situations and lack of family support.

A favorite aspect of my Yale School experience has come about as a result of my frequent travels around the country and abroad. I have purchased T-shirts and sent individual postcards to each of my students—many of whom have never made the eight-mile trip into downtown Chicago—from places as diverse as New Haven, Mexico, and Vietnam. My travels provide endless opportunities to expand the children’s knowledge and horizons, whether discussing geography, the complex math of converting euros or pesos to dollars, or the wonder of riding in an airplane high above the clouds, flying at 500 miles per hour.

Tutoring at the school is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Not a visit goes by without at least one child saying, in effect, “Oh, yes! I get it! I can do that!” And there is nothing more satisfying than meeting a former student (from as long as five years before) in the hall and getting a big hug! We believe that we’re helping make a real difference with children who don’t have many advantages. Since 1997, we have had tutors in every classroom in the school and touched the lives of over 1,000 children. All of our tutors have the satisfaction and rewards of providing opportunities that will, we hope, give one group of disadvantaged inner-city students a better chance in life.

The club membership is delighted that we can work together to serve our community in this way, in addition to its financial support for community service fellowships and scholarships for Yale undergraduates. The members of the club who have worked in the Elihu Yale Elementary School share my sense of satisfaction and the rich rewards that come from this project. We know we have touched the lives of the students; doing so has touched our lives as well.

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