Dear Diary,
We have been in the outskirts of Atlanta in a small town called Marietta, Georgia for three years now and so far, we feel that we have been making a difference in the student’s lives. Our one room schoolhouse has twenty-five seats, which is so few that the seats are filled every night we have class. In the Freedmen’s School for Freed Slaves, we teach a regular curriculum as well as basic life and family values. The families of our students are very appreciative of our kind hearts and the will to give our education to the public in order to have people less fortunate than us to succeed. We have been having trouble receiving donations from the North, and the public of the South as well, to keep our school running, but we are surviving with what we have. We will have to start to look beyond our families and friends for donations so we have contacted the state because they are supposed to be providing public education but they are not doing so.
Other than the financial part, we are very happy to see the students succeed but even more to see that the parents are excelling so they can start to improve in all aspects of life. Our only regret at this time is that we can only work with so few and not a lot because that means we cannot provide more families with the same education we are teaching to others.
Also, we were surprised to see that when we had arrived, there was a few private schools formed doing the same thing we are. We learned that they have been going on for a couple years now and disappointed to know that they aren’t public schools.
Until Next Time, Susan
&nb ...