Stage Review: 'Homework' is engaging plea for help for schools

"I'm passionate about education and community involvement in education," says Aaron Braxton.

As a teacher in an inner-city school, Aaron Braxton keeps a list of his educational role models close to his heart. Among them: Jaime Escalante, the calculus instructor immortalized in “Stand and Deliver.” Or the bat-wielding Joe Clark whose turnaround of a failing school was the subject of “Lean on Me.”

But Braxton is a substitute teacher. What influence can he have on his students in the short time he’s with them?

He ponders his role — and the effectiveness of America’s educational system — in his one-man show “Did You Do Your Homework?” running through Sunday at TheatreWorks as part of Playhouse on the Square’s Solo Works series.

As both an actor and a middle school science and math teacher in Los Angeles, Braxton combines his two passions in this piece that hits on a number of salient issues facing educators today. He works in a school system primarily focused on test taking, and must deal with parents who don’t discipline or nurture, and kids who can’t keep their pants pulled up.

Braxton’s up-tempo delivery reveals something about his teaching style as well. He comes off as engaging and idealistic, even faced with the reality that not all kids can be rescued from their environment.

Two pupils stand out in Braxton’s characterization of them. One is Laquita, a brash teenager who thinks she’s head of the class. Then there’s Brian, a thuggish, homeless kid whose mother is more concerned that he gets a confiscated cell phone back.

Braxton wants to fill them with dreams, convince them that they have the capacity for success and intelligence. But the teacher is frustrated by the sheer amount of basic information they aren’t getting at home. A kid who can’t bathe himself isn’t going far in math or science.

Though his characters are composites of students and teachers he has known, not all of the show is fiction. Braxton talks about his real family life, and how the importance of an education was instilled in him by his mother, who was also a teacher.

The result is a plea, of sorts, for help from the community. Teachers are not super heroes. They can’t swoop down and make kids want to become brain surgeons. The procession of kids through the school system is never-ending, and each student has his or her own set of obstacles. What teachers can do is believe that every student has greatness inside of them.

The next step in a truly effective educational system, he maintains, is to make society see the same potential that teachers do.

“Did You Do Your Homework?”

The play continues at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at TheatreWorks, 2085 Monroe. Tickets are $20. Call 726-4656.

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