OF4-05/18/09 9:25 AM
A PENNY PROJECT FOR YOUR THOUGHTS.
The Osgood File. I'm Charles Osgood.
If you saw a penny on the street, would you bother to reach down and pick it up?
A lot of people wouldn't. But at a school in Harlem --- the Children's Storefront School --- computer teacher Steve Bergen has begun a penny project to raise money for the school, and teach kids a lesson at the same time.
SOT - Steve Bergen
"The whole penny metaphor is a metaphor for little things add up."
So one day, he told his class...
SOT - Steve Bergen
(Bergen:) We're going to have a billion pennies in Harlem, okay? (Children:) Whoa? In Harlem?!"
When he was running for President, Barack Obama talked a lot about "change." But since he's been President, it's clear he wasn't talking about "small change."
SOT - Steve Bergen
"We started hearing Obama kick around the word trillion and billion..."
A billion pennies would be ten million dollars. As a first step, they're trying to raise a million pennies, which would be 10,000 dollars.
Kathy Egmont is head of the Children's Storefront School, which charges no tuition --- but depends on donations to meet its four million dollar budget.
SOT - Kathy Egmont
"Ten thousand dollars would be significant to us. It would help pay for part of somebody's salary, it would help us with our general operating."
Bergen says the kids really do get it.
SOT - Steve Bergen
"85% of our kids come from below the poverty line. By getting them to connect the pennies with Obama's stimulus package, we are creating in effect a stimulus package here in Harlem..."
They have contacted other schools using Skype --- and asked them to help out, too. Our Randall Pinkston was there when they talked to a school in Rhode Island.
SOT - Steve Bergen, talking via Skype to a school in Rhode Island
"(Bergen:) How many do you have? (NAT of pennies) (School:) Uh, 425. (Bergen:) Thank you so much..."
And one in Germany.
SOT - Randall Pinkston, CBS News Correspondent, talking via Skype to a school in Germany
"(Pinkston:) Where do you find your pennies? (Teacher:) We don't have American pennies, but of course we have the European one-cent piece."
Pinkston asked the kids...
SOT - Randall Pinkston, with kids at the Children's Storefront School
"(Pinkston:) Are you really learning math from this? (Kids:) Yes..."
The Osgood File. Transcripts, podcasts, and Mp3s of these broadcasts can be found at theosgoodfile.com. I'm Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
The Osgood File. May 18th, 2009. |
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