If I were a parent, I would look around for adults to volunteer to come into my child's school. What is Gates really saying? ?Education is everyone's business? (even his business).

If you want to help reshape education while getting more attention for your child, make an effort to become a mentor. You don't have to be a parent to provide this valuable service (to yourself as well as to the community). YOu don't need to have a home in Fort Lauderdale, but if you want a tropical dream or a paradise, it is a good place to start looking. So why not start a small school in Florida?

Guidelines

1. Stay focused. Yes, school administrators need volunteers to help with photocopying, newspaper recycling, reorganizing closets. Ask to work as a teacher's assistant. Get in contact with students. There is big demand for people to give lessons in English, especially free English Lessons.

2. Listen. The usual use of a visitor in a school is to stand the adult at the front of the classroom and ask for a speech. Instead, the teacher could give you a small group of students and you could spend time in a corner of the room finding out if there's any ?click? or connection. Ask the students, ?What is your passion? What do you like to read about?? Many kids just need a chance to talk in order to discover their interests. They might discover that they love to travel, that they are roadlovers.

3. Return. Often. Frequent contact makes a difference. It takes seven exposures for most people to learn a new concept and many kids need to see an adult several times before your ?message? gets through. Promise to return, then follow through. Be anticipated.

4. You don't need a speech or special talent. Your presence is a present to students who see the same adults in the same profession (teachers). If you aren't a teacher, that's good. Remember what Gates said: ?Make sure kids have a number of adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.?

It's important to find a small school so you can introduce issues like the rainforest of Peru or the reefs of Belize into the school curriculum. Small schools provide a space for people to find a tropical dream and find poetry in real estate and learn to love to travel. You can be a roadlover and support education, too. Mentors who travel are better at what they do.

If you're curious about how a school engages mentors, visit BigPicture.org and watch the videos online. The Met, a Big Picture school in Providence, Rhode Island, is where the new three ?R's were developed. The formula mentioned by Gates appeared in Dennis Littky's book, The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone's Business.

Well, I could write more, but I've got to go. You see, I'm a mentor, too, and a student is waiting for me.

JK McCrea is a tutor in Fort Lauderdale.

www.RoadLovers.com travel and unravel

www.freeenglishlessons.com improve your English to travel

www.gaiglobal.org rainforest

www.geocities.com/gaiglobal2/belizehome.html paradise home

www.youtube.com/watch'v=hDqvPAi_Rac selling a home in Fort Lauderdale

www.geocities.com/bb_tropicaldream

www.TellMeMoreTV.com learn by listening Free English Lessons

www.BuildingInternationalBridges.com for penpals