Location: Fourth Presbyterian Church
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2013; 5:45-7:30 pm
I have a confession to make. It doesn't matter how many degrees I have
collected, I really am not that good at studies. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have always been
interested in acquiring knowledge, either through books, or in a classroom. But when it comes to studying solo, my
attention span has always been quite limited. However, I have found myself being more attentive when tutored one-on-one. I remember my Dad teaching me fractions and
that one night when my Mom stayed up with me till 4 am to teach me
languages. I also remember one cold
evening in graduate school, when one of my buddies patiently explained the
concepts of ‘Mass Transport’ in
Chemical Engineering. I have learned a
lot through these tutoring sessions, but never before had I an opportunity to
tutor someone…until today. I was to
participate in Chicago Light’s tutoring program.
Of all my Chicago Cares projects,
this one was the closest to both, where I work and where I live. In fact, it was right in middle of downtown
with spectacular views of Michigan Avenue.
I arrived at the facility, which unlike some of the other places, was in
a high rise. I was directed to a room
where I found a group of other volunteers, none of whom were from Chicago
Cares. They were substitute tutors who
were working directly through Chicago Lights.
Their website says, “Breaking the
Cycle of Poverty Through Education - Chicago Lights Tutoring seeks to break the
cycle of poverty through academic and emotional support for over 400 students
from low-income communities by helping the students improve their academic
performance, stay in school through high school graduation, prepare for higher
education and meaningful careers, and expand leadership and social skills. Children in grades one through twelve, from
the Near North, Near West, and Humboldt Park neighborhoods, come to Fourth
Presbyterian Church for weekly one-to-one tutoring sessions with volunteer
tutors/mentors. Healthy meals, creative
enrichment activities, computer lab access, career development opportunities,
internships, scholarships, and literacy activities are key components of the
program, which operates four evenings a week during the school year.”
Weeks before this event, I had
been sent a Volunteer Handbook by Chicago Cares, which amongst many things said
that our main job would be in inspiring the child. Typically, Chicago Lights requires a tutor to
agree to a long-term commitment, coming in same time each week, and working
with the same child. This allows them to
build a rapport, which goes a long way towards the true education of that
child. Chicago Cares provides rotating substitute
teachers who volunteer every Thursday and fill-in for regular tutors. I was one of those substitute tutors, which
meant it was unlikely that I would be building a similar bond with the child as
a regular tutor would have done.
My friend Irina was also doing
the program this evening and no sooner had we said hello, when one of the staff
members dumped a bunch of paperwork for us to fill out. Not only had we not seen our Volunteer
leader, it seemed that the only thing we would be doing that evening, was
filling out the forms. There were several
question regarding our history, employment, places of residence over the past
several years and list of references. As
if that wasn't enough, we were also given two other reference forms to hand to
people who would vouch for us. When it
came to background check, these guys took it seriously, and rightfully so. If this was going to turn out to be a regular
tutoring schedule for someone, they were going to ensure the credibility of
that person. Normally, Chicago Cares
takes away the background check aspect for Children’s Services programs by only
requiring the Volunteer leader to undergo checks, assuming that this person
would be accountable for the volunteers under them. I for one have never complained about checks
and security, because it is only for the good and when it comes to children,
you cannot be too safe.
We finally finished the paperwork
and the staff member asked if Irina and I wanted to pair up, which we had no
problems with. Next task was to find a
child who required our help. We walked
down the corridors and saw several rooms where tutoring sessions were in
progress. It also seemed like a lively
and fun place for the kids. We were told
that the child may have some homework to do, in which case we were to help them
with that. If not, there were several
worksheets with the librarian, which they could solve for points. Finally, we were encouraged to play a game
with the child towards the end of our session.
When time was up, we were to accompany the child to the cafeteria on
first floor where everyone was waiting for their bus, either going uptown or toward
west loop. Once the children got on
their buses, we could leave.
 |
| Arithmetic |
We found a girl, Nadia, who was
not paired with anyone. She did not have
any homework, but was willing to do a worksheet problem. I went with her to pick one from the library
and while I tried to engage her in conversation, she seemed the type who takes
a long time to open up. Nadia picked a
Math worksheet and we were ready to begin.
The task was to add 3 or four sets of numbers, ranging anywhere from
single to 4 digits. Nadia diligently
used a pencil and scrap paper to add them, while I borrowed a calculator from
Irina. Let us examine the irony
here. A pre-teen girl was doing
arithmetic on paper while a PhD. was using a calculator to add. I guess I could claim that I had ‘earned’
that right. I noticed that almost all of
her totals were wrong, but waited till she had finished the set. I asked her to check her answers and she
realized that she had forgotten to add a complete set of middle numbers in all
of the problems. Once she found out what
her mistake was, she corrected it in no time and we moved to the next set, which
was matching the columns.
On the left was a group of
numbers to be added and on the right was the answers. The student had to draw a line to match the
correct answer with the set of numbers.
She connected all of them correctly, with me checking on the calculator,
and then when only one was left, she drew a line to join them. The point of the exercise was to learn how to
add. So I told her that while we had
only one choice left, we should double-check to see if it was indeed
correct. She did not complain and did as
I told. The final problem was a short
paragraph which outlined the area of three countries and asked the student to
find the total area. I told Nadia that
if she got this correct, we would proclaim her as the Queen of all of these
nations. While she may have thought of
this as tacky for her age, she did smile at the joke.
 |
| Jenga |
Nadia had decided that she was
done studying for the evening and now was time to play a game. She chose ‘Jenga’,
which she claimed as one of her favorites.
I had never played this before and when I learned that the objective was
to build a tower with wooden blocks and remove one-at-a-time and placing on top
without toppling, I knew I was in trouble.
Dexterity has never been one of my strong points. A little boy, Ken, asked if he could join
and the four of us started playing. Not
only was Nadia good at this, she was also trash talking. To my surprise, so was Irina. I had never pictured her to be so
competitive. I was doing quite well for
a first timer and wasn't even the first one eliminated, Ken having that
distinction. One his tower had toppled,
he moved on to play something else with his mentor and I was left with the
girls. Through an unspoken agreement,
they had decided to gang up on me and it wasn't long before my number was
up. For the finals both of them indulged
in some good natured gamesmanship and at the end Irina won. She is not the one to be a quite winner and
proceeded to celebrate with lot of enthusiasm.
To her credit, Nadia was enjoying herself and did not mind. We played two more games, both of which where
I was eliminated first and Irina won.
Watching the girls play was edge-of the-seat excitement and there were times
when I found myself holding my breath, anticipating a fall which never came. This was brilliant stuff.
Soon the time was up and we
gathered our belongings and prepared to go down to wait for the bus with
Nadia. We stopped at several rooms to
see all sorts of activities going on, ranging from people playing ‘Hangman’ on white board, to dancing to ‘Monopoly’, to even composing music on
computers hooked to a big screen TV. Every
volunteer and student looked comfortable with each other and the tasks they
were doing, showing the virtue of building a recurring relationship. We went down with Nadia and waited in the
cafeteria with dozens of screaming kids and other volunteers. She finally got on her bus and we were ready
to leave. This tutoring experience had
been a lot of fun and despite my reservations regarding my abilities to teach,
I had done a decent job. On a recent
flight, I was reading Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine, ‘Spirit’, which had an article on ‘Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA)’, which is a
non-profit initiative that supplies underprivileged children with free instruments,
instructions and enables them to express themselves and their art. The article starts with the words, “If you know four notes… teach someone who
knows three”.
Well, nothing more to add really.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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