Summer shows
Yesterday was the first of my shows for this season with Newton Learning, the education-y company I juggled for in the fall. They run after school programs, funded by No Child Left Behind, at schools that perform low enough on whatever standardized testing is the current..um..standard. Where last year all of the shows took place at school events around the start of the academic year, this time the company is reaching out early. I juggled yesterday at the Newton Learning booth at the Chicago Puerto Rican Children’s Parade. The actual folks running the booth were friendly, which was nice. It’s been a little awkward for me showing up at these things and meeting the people who are actually involved in the tutoring process, when I’m just the attention-getter hired to bring the kids and (hopefully) their parents to the booth. The people are never rude, so maybe it’s just me feeling awkward.
When I do these shows, Erica always teases me about how I’m an example of the way that funding for this huge educational drive gets funneled away from actual education. I suppose it’s true, and may be a tiny example of how the right wing Everything-Free-Market model can be counterproductive to what you’re actually trying to do: money goes to glitz and promotion and bright flashy colors instead of substance. On the flip side, of course, I’ve never seen the actual tutoring programs in action, and maybe they are really great. I certainly hope so. Heck, sometimes I even hope that the promotional funding must come from the company itself, and the government money is mandated to go directly to the tutoring programs. And, while this system is in place, I don’t mind doing these shows and hoping that my flashiness actually does help steer some kid towards tutoring and, I hope, an improved education who might not otherwise have signed up. At least, that’s how I’m justifying doing these shows. Besides, they’re fun.
Estrogen Fest happened a couple of weeks ago. I think our two nights went quite well, although I felt slightly better about my performance on the second night. There was videotaping going on, and my understanding is that we will get a copy once everything is put together.. Stay tuned.
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