If you ask me whether or not I like children, my answer, given grudgingly, would always be yes. That’s not to say I have any particular dislike for them, but an hour of trying to teach them what the number 11 is when they try to count on their fingers can only be described as incredibly tiring. “Come on you guys, 11 is not the number 1”, I told them gently. It would have been another mind-numbing hour had one of the fellow student-helpers not suggested I use blocks instead. We made immediate progress from that point. Except for the fact it soon became a mess of us trying to make the tallest block tower while counting.
That was my first day volunteering at my local library and my first time trying to teach small children. The next day went about in a much organized fashion, but not by very much. It was then I learned from the kids they knew how to count perfectly well and they were simply playing with me the previous day. Now they told me they needed help with their homework. I could only sigh and chuckle to myself, something which they found to be fairly hilarious, pointing it out to each other. This sigh and chuckle of mine …show more content…
That’s what the other student helpers told me I should do; it was the easiest way to resolve the problem. But the easiest way is not always the right way. There is no simple right or wrong answer, just a different perspective of seeing something. I reinforced this point in them by using a famous quote from To Kill a Mockingbird”, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” The degrees of success were varying, from eye-closing and ear covering to sounds of disgust. I have to give the children credit though, since when they thought about their problem from the other’s perspective, it was much easier for them to understand, and to ultimately
That was my first day volunteering at my local library and my first time trying to teach small children. The next day went about in a much organized fashion, but not by very much. It was then I learned from the kids they knew how to count perfectly well and they were simply playing with me the previous day. Now they told me they needed help with their homework. I could only sigh and chuckle to myself, something which they found to be fairly hilarious, pointing it out to each other. This sigh and chuckle of mine …show more content…
That’s what the other student helpers told me I should do; it was the easiest way to resolve the problem. But the easiest way is not always the right way. There is no simple right or wrong answer, just a different perspective of seeing something. I reinforced this point in them by using a famous quote from To Kill a Mockingbird”, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” The degrees of success were varying, from eye-closing and ear covering to sounds of disgust. I have to give the children credit though, since when they thought about their problem from the other’s perspective, it was much easier for them to understand, and to ultimately