Tutors’ zeal based on faith

Maryland’s only faith-based tutoring service has found a home in a Bladensburg church where teachers are helping needy students improve their reading, writing and math skills.

As about 100 elementary-school students yesterday concluded a two-week tutorial inside the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Eileen Dowd said her Mrs. Dowd’s Teaching Service is a worldwide network of Christian teachers but the curriculum focuses on helping children, not preaching.

“We teach secular math and reading,” she said. “I was a teacher for more than 30 years, and we feel a real responsibility to teach solid math and reading skills. We do it with kindness and compassion, but we don’t teach religion. That’s not our goal.”

Mrs. Dowd said the program works one on one or in small groups with children of all backgrounds, cultures and religions.

President Bush signed an executive order in December 2002 allowing federal money to be awarded to faith-based organizations through grants and contracts.

Mrs. Dowd’s service receives about $1,700 per student, so those who qualified for free or reduced school-lunch programs can receive the free tutoring.

“The community is behind us and involved all the way,” Mrs. Dowd said.

She said the roughly 40 certified teachers, student teachers and teachers’ assistants have also taken a “big leap of faith” because the paperwork for them to get paid is still incomplete.

Most of the students at St. Luke’s attend Bladensburg Elementary School and were split this summer into either the 8 a.m.-to-11:30 a.m. or the 1 p.m.-to-4 p.m. session.

“The good part about this program is that the students deal with an actual face rather than a computer,” said Rhonda Pitts, the Bladensburg school principal. “I recommended it because of the personal touch.”

Yesterday, the students got an anatomy lesson using the brain, heart and lungs of a sheep.

“It was slimy to touch, but I learned that the heart never stops pumping blood.” said 8-year-old Ronald Coello.

Michael Lidner, a 17-year-old who was home-schooled, taught the class.

“The tutoring helps them learn what they didn’t learn during the school year, finding weaknesses and what they can improve on,” he said.

Michael, who studied anatomy and physiology, said teaching the children was initially “pretty difficult” but gradually became fun as the children got used to him.

“It was interesting to see them open up more as time went on,” he said. “It’s definitely been a new experience for me.”

The program also fine-tuned the students’ addition and subtraction skills.

“I got better on multiplication and fractions,” said Justyce Nicholson, an 8-year-old from Bladensburg. Quizzed about the sum of two halves, she quickly and confidently answered correctly.

“Math is my favorite subject,” said Kenneth Evans, an 8-year-old from Bladensburg whose mother signed him up for the program.