educate

I'm one of those people who doesn't subscribe to the newspaper but faithfully reads it online with my cup of coffee, though I miss doing the crossword puzzle in the mornings and my daily dose of Pearls Before Swine.

And this morning, I see some familiar faces in an article about Joseph Gallagher School. They're the kids I see every Saturday, and two of them were in the tutoring program I was a part of earlier this year.

I got frustrated with the structure of the program and the bureaucracy of the education system in general because I'm still convinced that the best way to teach kids how to read is to work with them one-on-one and not put them in front of a computer, but it did give me a chance to get to know the families and understand where they're coming from. What gets me is that some of them speak more languages than I do, local dialects, Swahili, French. I wish I could speak that many.

Now they call me sometimes when they're stuck on homework problems, and I love when we're there and I'm showing the parents what they're doing so they can learn too and help them. The last time I was there, she gave me an ABC book and I began going over the basics of the alphabet with the little guys who aren't in school yet, hopefully to give them a jump before they get there so they know what's going on.

And to all those people out there who want to complain about people not speaking English, I'd like you to think about where your grandparents and great-grandparents came from and how hard life was for them. It's easy for you to say "just learn it" when you've had all the opportunities handed to you and you never had to pick between going to school and helping feed your family.

I can't remember not being able to read. I never realized until recently how much I've taken that for granted. I'm overwhelmed sometimes trying to explain something that I just kind of know.

each one teach one.

It's been a process over the last few months learning how to take everything I know, distill the things that are really important and try to pass it on. It almost makes it harder to teach the English language when you're so used to studying literature that you take things like capital letters and punctuation marks for granted because you've used them as long as you can remember.

You have to adjust out of explaining plot points to trying to explain basic grammar. Or you're trying to explain the weirdness of the language and why certain things are pronounced one way and others another. It doesn't make any sense really.

I feel bad having ten-year-olds do kindergarten-level work, drawing uppercase and lowercase letters and reading sentences about Jim and Bill eating jam or whatever. But the kids really get into it, wanting me to check their work, and draw them smiley faces and put "100%" on them when they're perfect.

They want me to give them HOMEWORK which just amazes me, and they love math because it's a universal thing and there isn't a language barrier there. I know it's hard for them to sit still after being in school all day, so I bring snacks to keep their energy up, and we play games and do some of their dances. I tell them to bring it home and show it to their parents, and hope they pick up some of it too.

I want to see them be able to express themselves, understand others, and comprehend their world better. I'd like to see them develop a love of reading too and not get frustrated. I can't imagine going through fleeing civil war to the instability of a refugee camp hundreds of miles from home in Tanzania, then getting on a plane and landing here in Cleveland where you end up in school several years behind and not speaking the language.

I'm hoping I can pick up some more skills next weekend when me and the roommate get certified as legit ESL instructors. Theoretically, I can now take this skill anywhere depending on how life works out. I figure there's always more that you can learn.

a b c d...

In the past week, I've somehow ended up with a part-time job that starts on Monday. For three nights a week, I'll be tutoring some of my Saturday kids in reading and math. I've talked in the past about how I feel overwhelmed by the need to do more and this just happened to work out so that I can do something more intensive and one-on-one. Some of the kids are ahead of others, but all of them are still behind.

Last night, I worked with one of my kids who's throwing gang signs in every photo I have of him. He doesn't want to be there at all, but as we were going through the alphabet and reading through a first reader book, he got really into it because he could see how everything worked together for the first time.

I can't imagine getting through life without being able to read and can't remember a time in life when I wasn't able to. I hope that the things that opened up my world will open up theirs as well.