What a great time it was to experience the HEP program as a service learning tutor. There was such a diverse group of students participating in HEP. It was inspiring to help students who were participating to further their lot in life, to give themselves a chance to experience something new, they had desires and inspirations that I identified with. There were students who were there for... well, not really sure. It seemed they also were there to experience something new and out of their comfort zone.I suppose they wanted to have a normal school experience. Meet new people, party and make a little time for school too. It seemed a chance for them to walk away for a bit from their otherwise tumultuous lives.
Working with a few of the students reminded me of some of the students I had working as a wilderness field instructor with at-risk youth at the SUWS program. Seeing the students struggling, having a hard time focusing and dreaming of other things. Bucking the rules set by the HEP program, allowing themselves to become distracted and unfocused. That was hard for me to witness. I wanted to draw on the in your face almost military style of communicating that I learned at SUWS, but I did not feel it was my place. I wanted to see the teachers stick to the boundaries and have the students follow them. I think it would be a better learning environment if those rules were strictly enforced. There were students there who wanted to be there, to learn, to gain their GED. I found it distracting for myself and the dedicated students when cell phones were constantly going off with text messages and such. Not to go without saying that there were a few instances that I saw the rules being enforced, but in my mind it's all or nothing. Perhaps easier said than done.
The best part of being there was interacting with people I have not otherwise had interactions with. A population that is so often villainized by popular media. It was freeing to be apart of their lives for a brief moment and experience their humanity, no different from you and I.
No comments:
Post a Comment