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PHOENIX SPECIAL ON KIDSFor Help With Your Homework, The Answer Is A Phone Call AwayBY BOB TAYLOR%u201cHomework Hotline,%u201d answers Susan Sanchez to a young caller who has telephoned the special Board of Education number, 718/780-7766, stumped by a math assignment.%u201cWhat grade are you in?%u201d she continues. %u201cWhat are you doing . triangles? What book do you have so that I can see if we have it here on our reference shelves?%u201d After locating the book on the shelves of the reference room in the Brooklyn Public Library on Grand Army Plaza, Sanchez asks the caller what the problem is. %u201cWhat do you think you need to start doing here?%u201d she says. %u201cYou know those two angles are right next to each other?%u201dThe caller is having problems following Sanchez%u2019 directions, so she turns to the three other teachers working the hotline to see if they might be able to give better assistance. %u201cThis girl is really having trouble, do you want to try it?%u201d she asks Ted Allen.Both Sanchez, a teacher at Brooklyn Friends School, and Allen, an employee of the Brooklyn Public Library, work one evening shift weekly answering about 30 pleas for help each from young people having problems with their homework.Now in its sixth year of operation, the number of calls taken each night appears to be on a steady increase, according to Martin Dooley, the coordinator of the hotline. During the last school year, the program took 8,000 calls averaging 60-70 nightly. %u201cIt opened pretty strongly this year,%u201d says Dooley about the immediate heavy usage, nearly 120 calls each night.The hotline number is open from 5-8pin, Monday to Thursday, with Wednesday and Thursday evening doing the briskest business. The teachers answering the phones all agree that the children put of their weekly homework assignments until the last minute, just before they are due on Friday.FIND THE CAPITAL With a selection of textbooks used in the City%u2019s public shcools on hand, Dooley says that about 30 to 40 percent of the caUers are in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. %u201cThe object is to help them do their homework and not give them the answers,%u201d he says. %u201cIf they ask what%u2019s the capital of New York State, we tell them how to find out.%u201dDenice Gamper, teacher at Bishop Kearney High School in Bensonhurst, answers all the science questions. %u201cI really don%u2019t know why people hyperventilate whenHe wanted toknow what the days o f the week were namedafter. So I told him to check the encyclopedia. When hedid, he said, %u2018 Wow, the answers are all right here. %u2019The Homework Hotline is staffed by four teachers Monday to Thursday evenings, 5pm to 8pm. Above, left to right, John Biackette, Susan Sanchez, Denice Gamper and Ted Allen taking calls from students needing their help. Below, Sanchez, Biackette and Gamper discussing one of the math assignments. (Phoenix/Tayior Photos)they talk about chemistry,%u201d she says.Taking a call from a boy who is having problems with a science question, she is very careful not to give the answers away. %u201cDo you have a textbook, Max?%u201d she asks. %u201cWhy don%u2019t you go to your textbook and find out what it says about plasma?%u201dWhile Dooley cautions the teachers to be hesitant with any medical questions, the teachers say they get some truly strange requests that, at times, they are not sure whether they should help answer.%u201cWe get questions ranging from A to Z, but the strangest call I think I ever had was from someone asking me what the three stages of birth were,%u201d says Sanchez, who says the easiest questions are math problems. %u201cI spent a lot of time helping someone prepare a paper on MacBeth once and spoke to her for at least 40 minutes.%u201dFor Allen, the calls on sex education are the most difficult to answer. %u201cI%u2019m not sure whether they are from a homework assignment or whether the kids are just titillating us.%u201dCAN%u2019T BE POETIC ON DRUGS%u201cOne of the more difficult questions was from a girl named Martha,%u201d he adds. %u201cShe called and said she had to write a poem on drugs and didn%u2019t feel very poetic about it.%u201dThese types of questions are %u201cbarometers%u201d of what is being taught in the schools, says Sanchez, who said that during the first week of October the hotline had a large number of calls from children about drugs after the city%u2019s schools held day long seminars on the subject. %u201cSometimes I really wonder where some of these teachers come up with the questions they ask these kids,%u201d adds Gamper.As the Homework Hotline has a Brooklyn telephone number, the teachers agree that most of the calls probably come from this borough. The United Federation of Teachers operates a similar program in Manhattan, but the Brooklyn operation is the only one funded by the Board of Education. Still, telephone calls for help have come from as far away as Hartford, CT and London, England.Each call, though, seems to surprise the teachers because of the responses the youngsters have when they discover the answer. After taking a call Gamper laughs, %u201cHe wanted to know what the days of the week were named after. So, I told him to check the encyclopedia. When he did he said, %u2018Wow, the answers are all right here.%u2019%u201d4Bishop Ford CentralCatholic High School500 19th St., Bklyn, NY 1121525 Yfears of Catholic EducationOPEN HOUSESunday, Nov. 210:00-1:00 p.m.Sunday Liturgy9:00-10:00 a.m.in Bishop FordChapelBishop Ford Central Catholic High School:Offering Unique Educational OpportunitiesThrough Innovative ProgramsFor Further Information Call(718) 965-6400THEflEIGHBORHOOD Programsfor2%u2019s, 3%u2019s, and 4%u2019sPtRVGROUnO875-1412 NURS%u20acRV316 Clinton St.(comer of Kane St.)Cobble HillThe Pumpkin PatchCounty Fair!!Saturday, Oct. 25 %u2022 10am-3pmPumpkins %u2022 Popcorn %u2022 Games Cotton Candy %u2022 M oon Ride Lunch %u2022 Pumpkins Packer Collegiate InstituteGARDEN ENTRANCELivingston Street(between Court (5 Clinton)In case o f rain 2d floor gymA STUDENTS%u2019Photo-tipfromGraphic Art Mart, Inc.Ask for quality KODAK Color Processing.For bright, c le a r c o lo r., .just th e w ay you like it.CAPTURE MEM ORABLE M O M EN TSON ART, FILM OR CANVASGraphic A rt Mart, Inc.321 DeKalb Avenue Brooklyn, N Y 11205C O L O R P R O C E S S IN G Kodaklan V ) \\ 7 R Q -Q 9 1 QriiiiiiiiiKeep Up With All theNews of Downtown Kids1IISubscribe to IIAwara-Winning Coverage of Downtown Brooklyn's Historic Brownstone NeighborhoodsG et B rooklyn%u2019s N u m b er O ne H om etow n N ew spaperDelivered Right to Your M ailbox 52 W eeks a YearSend $12.50 for O n e Year %u2022 Tw o Years O nly $20.Name__________________________________________IIIIiAddressIAward-Winning Coverage of What%u2019sHappening in Brownstone BrooklynEvery Week in The Phoenix Pages| Send C heck or M oney O rder to Phoenix, 395 A tlantic| Avenue, Brooklyn 11217.Trial Three Month Subscription Only $3. ^ j j jO cto ber 16, TH E P H O E N IX , S ection II, Page 11II