Following a Few Steps Behind

Once a week, I assist in the elementary school English classes. The kids have many "barricades" that block them from participating in the lesson. The excuses include, but are not limited to:

1. I don't have my English notebook.
2. My pencil isn't sharpened.
3. I'm not working today.
4. Yesica is kicking my chair.

Thankfully, many of these "problems" have an easy solution which I help them to quickly find get back on track. Just three weeks ago, however, I encountered problems with not such an easy or quick solution. In two of my classes we received new students. I noticed them right as I walked in, because among a sea of 8-11 year-olds their 13- and 14-year old bodies literally stuck out. The barriers these two children face are far harder to work out than the ones of my 9-year-old 3rd graders.

Last week, in my 4th grade class, the teacher presented a English lesson on telling time. As the teacher recited various times, such a 5:15, 6:30, and 2:23, the kids copied them down to later draw the time on individual miniature clocks. When I looked across the classroom for confused faces, I saw 14-year-old Maria staring at her paper. When I approached her, I saw with the help of a friend she had successfully deciphered the recited times but was stuck at that. I gently explained the activity in Spanish to her, thinking she hadn't understood the instructions the teacher had given in English and then I walked away. When I returned a few minutes later, she had made no progress. It was then that I realized she had never learned how to tell time. The little hand, big hand, and five minute intervals for Maria made no more sense in Spanish than they did in English. I changed the English lesson into a telling-time lesson in Spanish. I spent the last ten minutes of class teaching Maria the parts of the clock, its 12 points, and its silly little hands.

This past Thursday, in my 3rd grade class, I took a seat next to Ivan, the 13-year-old new arrival who I had made a point to help each English class. He has been picking up English quickly. During this week's lesson on fruits, he smiled proudly when he successfully could give me manzana (apple), sandia (watermelon), and uvas (grapes) in English. Often though, Ivan falls behind when copying sentences on the board. Why? He painfully labors over writing every letter. When the rest of the class has already copied the day's date and has moved onto the lesson, Ivan is just finishing writing the "s" of "Today's date is:" Before Ivan entered NPH, writing skills were not something he used often.

When I see Ivan and Maria struggle I don't know whether to be angry at their pasts which denied them an education or to rejoice in their daily triumphs at NPH where they now have the chance at a promising future.

At least I do know that my definition, and hopefully my 8-year-old student definitions, of "problems" has slightly changed in meaning.