It is challenging to put into words all the feelings, realizations, and thoughts that pass through one's head on such an incredible journey. Especially when everyday something new happens that could be shared.
To attempt at summarizing, we have wanted to share a bit of the frustrating reality of working within the school system here as tutors. Of course with that frustration comes joy, love, devotion, and attachment to each and every kid we work with.
The problems are technical ones, they are ingrained within the system, and within the great amount of need. To some extent is it the same everywhere. Back in Albuquerque I always felt, I am not doing enough, there needs to be more hours in the day to teach, to work with the kids, to help them. And here that feeling is intensified ten-fold.
The program that we are volunteering for, sets up an ideal working plan, that if stuck to could amount to each volunteer significantly helping a handful of students make academic progress. The goal is for each volunteer to work with five students everyday, tutoring them 1 on 1 for 30 minutes at a time. Even though 30 minutes is a short amount of time to cover much content, it still would be daily exposure of individualized attention to work towards that goal.
The reality for us is quite different. I work with seven 1st grade students, as the teacher wants to me to work with all of the ones who are significantly behind. Now, it's important to note that we only work 4 days a week and only from 9:30 til 11:30 or 12 as that is when school gets out. From 9:30-10:00 there is recess, on Tuesdays I do an art lesson with the whole class, and on other random days there is computer class where I help inside the classroom. Furthermore, sometimes the teacher demonstrates a new concept, so rather than pull a kid out to miss the lesson completely, I stay in and help keep kids focused in the class. The last barrier is the fact that the kids don't come everyday. With all this taken into consideration, I end up working with only 1 kid on a bad day, and only 3 kids on a good day which means I rotate through and see each kid only once or twice per week. This does not allow for good academic progress as the kids forget skills day to day and need constant repetition.
However, I consider myself lucky in the fact that my kids have class everyday, their teacher comes to school everyday and teaches them with some kind of order, and the kids I work with love the attention and really do try their best (aside from being COMPLETELY distracted by the smallest thing).
Matt's case on the other hand is even more challenging. For one, the ratio of attendance on both the professor's and the students' behalf is about 50%, or half the time. Second, on the chance the teacher is there, there is another 50% chance that she is teaching something and not grading papers at her desk. On top of that, 3 of the boys he is assigned to work with, are not motivated to accomplish assigned tasks and will even state "I'm done" and return themselves to class. In addition, when the teacher's not there, but the students are, Matt is in charge of the 20 or so kids. Presently, for the entire week, Matt's class is not in session at all. Needless to say, this makes productivity levels quite low and we are stuck wondering what we could do to make improvements.
However, the silver lining is that even if we have not reached academic success yet, we have definitely touched the lives of the kids we work with and they have touched ours. We have built friendships and demonstrated positive relationships. We have shared many laughs and taught them many games (most of which are educational and make learning fun!). For instance, just today after working with one of my boys, Rayner, he came over and asked me if I was going to his house now. I replied that no I wouldn't be going, but told him that I'd see him tomorrow, "Hasta Manana". He then said, "Hasta nunca!" meaning I'll never see him again. I smiled and said, "No me digas eso" (don't tell me that) and then he wrapped his little arms around my neck (as I was sitting and he was standing) and rested his head on my shoulder for a good 30 second hug. Awe, it tugs at my heart strings just thinking about it.
And even though Mateo might have it a little rougher than me, he is definitely the most popular rock star around. Every time he walks through the school gates, or past a class window, or even past a house in the neighborhood, the air fills with shouts of "Mateo! Mateo! Mateo!" Even when they smile to greet me, they end up shouting "Mateo."
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