Alberto, a highly focused second grader, tells us that someday he wants to be a “fireman because they rescue people, or maybe a policeman who catches bad guys… and,” as he changes gears with a grin, “I have a pet scorpion.”
His ACE teacher describes him as, “Amazing; very smart and always prepared. He’s up at 4 a.m. to arrive ready for school.” For Alberto, “the best thing about school is the learning, and my favorite class is science because we learn about nature [which may explain the scorpion] and I also want to be a geologist ‘cause I like cool rocks.”
Alberto speaks nearly flawless English and Spanish (required in his bilingual school) and sports a better-than-second-grade command of Mestizo, a centuries-old blend of Portuguese and French, which he learned on his own.
Yet the deeper reality behind these eyes is that Alberto has lived most of his seven years in local shelters with his single mom – a stark contrast to the stable and secure world found within the doors of his ACE private school.
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