Life is more than ABC's

I'm a volunteer tutor of a first and second grader over in Hell's Kitchen . One goes to the local public school and the other, a parochial school. The kids are trudging along in their reading and math, but I found that they are sorely lacking in the most basic geography. They only sort-of know the name of the street where they live but do not know their home addresses. What if they got lost? What would they tell the policeman?

They weren't really comfortable with the idea that they lived on an island. Even though they travelled over the bridge or tunnel to New Jersey to visit relatives, they didn't know the name of the river they were travelling over—or the GW Bridge or the Lincoln Tunnel. I'm not saying this to disrespect my little darlings, because they have brains like sponges and soak up anything spilled in their vicinity. BUT someone is not spilling basic stuff over them.
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