I am an after-school counselor and my duties are: helping children with homework, involving them in enrichment programs, and taking them to recess and dinner. The school itself is very new, it was rebuilt a few years ago. The outside of the school is nice, but there isn't much to it, just two relatively small playgrounds with no swings and it's mostly concrete. The classrooms are extremely bare compared to the first grade classrooms I observed, no children's work is displayed anywhere, and there are no decorations whatsoever, except for a poster with a list of rules. The school's academics are the main difference between the two schools that I observed. The class I am responsible for is third grade and working with them has broadened my perspective and allowed me to see a different side of the education system. At least four of the twelve children I had were unable to read at all, and the rest of the children had difficulty processing the material. They don't know their multiplication tables and sometimes they don't even know the difference between addition and subtraction. Of the twelve children I had, only two were actually in third grade. Listening to the children, I discovered that most of their families are made up of at least two young single mothers who work