TAMPA TRIBUNE

October 15, 2005

Out Of The Fields

For years, dirt-poor Latinos have been seeking a better life in America, taking on brutal, back-breaking jobs in fields and groves, traveling from farm to farm, state to state to harvest the crops.

To make ends meet, their children would forgo the classroom to join them in the fields. Living in squalid housing, with little or no health care and certainly no retirement fund, many found it impossible to break the cycle of poverty, even in this land of opportunity.

For some, that is changing. In growing numbers, Latinos are finding better, year-round jobs, allowing them to settle in and send their children to school. It's happening in Hillsborough County, where children are learning to read, write and speak English from dedicated teachers.

At Dover Elementary, where 74 percent of the students are Latino and 32 percent are children of migrant farmworkers, if a pupil misses a bus, a teacher or administrator will go to the child's home to give them him or her a ride. Teachers also will visit their students' homes to emphasize to the parents how important an education is for their children.

At a separate facility in Dover, a different group of teachers is working with Latino adults, teaching them English and job skills, while day care is offered for their children.

At Dover Elementary and at the jobs program, some of the teachers were migrant workers themselves. They serve as role models, helping show that with hard work and education, it is possible to break the cycle of poverty. Inside today's Tampa Tribune, reporter Yvette C. Hammett takes a look at the programs in Dover that are making a difference in so many lives, and we tell the stories of those giving — and receiving — hope.