Fri., Oct. 21, 2005--Idealism from 10-year-olds

Idealism can be a great thing because it can push us to do or experience things we might not consider. The downside of idealism, however, is that the actual experience might not match our expectation and we can walk away frustrated, which may squash our idealism a little bit. Our church has started a new venture of tutoring children at a local elementary school, mostly working with children of Mexican immigrants. I first went a couple weeks ago and I was afraid I had set my expectations too high. Privileged people (like myself) tend to do that when working with people coming from a different socio-economic background. We have these visions of pulling people up and being their saviors. That’s a pretty poor attitude, but sometimes we can’t stop ourselves. My first experience a in the classroom wasn’t great (see blog on Oct. 7), mainly because there was a substitute teacher the day I went and she wasn’t too sure what to do with me. So, I sat. I went back yesterday. Score a point for idealism. I worked with two 10-year-old girls who speak little English. I worked with them on the English words for clothing plus a little conversational English, too (“My name is…, My address is…). It was a wonderful 45 minutes. They were delightful, eager to learn, and also patient with me as I tried my high-school Spanish on them. I certainly hope I don’t look consider myself a person who can “save” them. If, eventually, I can be a kind of friend, a friend who tried to explain the difference between pants and jeans, I will be grateful.