Day 3: Strive for Excellence

"So I take your hand and close your eyes, I can hear our heartbeats quicken as our spirits as one arise...we are all in His hands, and He's--!!"

"Oh my GOSH, I knew it was Kevin without even turning around cause he's always SINGING.." One of my classmates interrupted my chorus as I threw open the door to the commuter lounge and swept in to quick grab a bite to eat while singing at the top of my voice. A few other students were sitting around, looking at laptops, pondering over homework, and talking with friends. I walked through the group of people and strode into the kitchen. I grinned smugly and dragged my commuter lunch out from the bowels of the fridge while plucking my water bottle from my backpack. I had a huge smile on my face, and to tell you the truth I didn't feel too bad at all. What could I really complain about? The most difficult part of my week was behind me and the tough chemistry and biology midterms were finally completed. A few more hours of studying and I would be prepared for the paper and exams left for the week. I had a lab report due that evening, but I wasn't too concerned about it at the moment. Now was the moment I actually looked forward to every week. It was now time to unleash my newly toned education skills upon the unsuspecting kids at Escuela Vieau. Now I had an idea about what I was going to do to really help these kids. About to burst with confidence for the coming hours, I gnawed at an apple while taking a huge pull at the chilled water bottle. "You seem to be in a good mood, Kevin," one of the guys lounging around said as I quick dropped to a chair to check my things for the afternoon, "where are you headed off to so quickly?" I quick gulped down the last of my tuna-sandwich and swung my backpack up over my shoulders. Once again I dragged open the door and prepared to leave. This time, however, I turned back and grinned before answering: "Today is the day when we make a difference."

I jotted down notes to improve my methods in my "fat lil' notebook" in preparation for the coming evening. I had an idea of what it was I wanted my students to feel in order that they be inspired to reach for something bigger, but I needed to convert my sentiments and ideas into a kid-format. We kids walk into college thinking we know so much about everything, but when we are faced with the basic needs of children in education we suddenly feel very ignorant indeed. It makes you appreciate your parents as you wonder to yourself "how in the heck did they ever manage to teach and inspire me and my my brothers and sisters?" As I'm in a rambunctious family of nine kids, I wonder at this all the more! Unlike the week before, no lightning bolts of divine educational inspiration descended from above in a fiery discourse, and I was left with a plain murk in regards to "kidifying" my teaching stratagy. "Oh well," I thought, "I suppose planning out step-by-step wouldn't work anyway." I did, however, want at least an idea of how to make this code of high ideals into something that would bore the bejeebers out of these younguns. But what? It is so important to be able to look at things from the perspective of the child. To see things as a child sees them. To see when the teacher is seeming unfair, boring, uninterested, and unconcerned for the intellectual and moral growth of the child. Maybe that's what really catches hold of the child. When they get the impression that the teacher actually cares. Even the most interesting material in the world can seem as boring as can be if the instructor comes across as boring, uninterested and genuinely doesn’t want to be in the presence of the child. “Kids aren’t stupid,” I thought, “you can’t fool them into believing that you care. You have to care.”

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Jose plopped down at the table in the teacher’s lounge and peeled open the small bag of hot Cheetos that I had bought for him from the vending machine. As full of life as ever, he dragged out his little backpack and plucked from its depths his tiny assignment book that kept all the work he needed for that afternoon. “So do you come every Thursday?” He asked me. “Or do you start to come on other days? Cause you need to come more often and help me with my homework.” I was too busy to notice what he said as I was engrossed in what I was doing by the chalkboard. My first thought was somehow instill confidence and a sense of unique intelligence in my young charge, and so I instantly set the tone by writing up on the board. Jose, realizing that he was not getting my attention, stared intently at the chalkboard and slowly spelled out the words that I had placed up in front of him. “Today…is the day…that…we are…geniuses.” As he digested what was written, I had a seat by him and began to speak, telling him of how important it was for us to unlock the real potential that I saw in him and believed him to have. I told him that even the greatest geniuses made tons of errors in calculations, missteps in procedure, and other failures. But what made them geniuses wasn’t the fact that they got straight A’s in their high school and elementary school classes, but the fact that they were relentless in their drive to reach higher and higher, and when they did make mistakes, they learned from them and moved forward. That is what I wanted from Jose, and I told him that I believed he had it in him to do just that. Looking back on it now, I do remember him paying attention when I started talking about him and how I believed in him. The thought of his sudden interest always makes me smile. How could we ever separate the child’s actual education from realities of a child’s life? I don’t think we can, because the child is best familiar with that which makes up his life.

At any rate, after my stirring and tear-jerking lecture about the necessity of genius and intellectual power, I sat down and waited for Jose’s response. I don’t know what I was expecting for him, but after a couple minutes of silence I figured that “Kevin you have changed my whole life and I am ever-indebted to your awe-inspiring charisma and inspiration” wouldn’t be coming any time soon. I looked at my charge. He seemed to be lost in the depths of nine-year old thought that no mere twenty-year old will ever be able to fully comprehend. I coughed and said “well? Jose?” in a darnit-all-why-don’t-you-respond-to-my-incredible-speech type of voice. There was no real response other than a grunt. I started to wonder whether he was listening to my words at all. Maybe the whole thing was lost on this crazy little kid! Holy cow, if I lost him because I was too focused on my speech method I was going to pull my hair out and start over. And there was Jose, the young philosopher who was still thinking deeply. I was a little nervous. “So whaddya say, Jose?!?” I ended up squawking brightly, while the cavalry of hysterics threatened to charge and crush my sanity from the wings. Jose stirred and looked at me, finally answering. “Why can’t we be handsome geniuses?” He asked. I stared slack-jawed for a second, surprised he actually responded. “What?!” I said. Jose thought for a moment before continuing: “Well I just thought that if you think that we could be geniuses then we should be handsome geniuses too.” I jumped up and stumbled over the table to get to the chalkboard. “Oh..yes..handsome, of COURSE!” I babbled as I remembered what my purpose there actually was. I scribbled “handsome” on the board and sat back down, brought back to the reality. Now was not the time for me to start asking for praise or start doubting my mental stability. Jose actually wanted to be genius and if he wanted to be a handsome one at that more power to him. For a while then there was silence. Jose had done it. At least for today, he wanted to learn. He wanted to fight for something bigger than that sheet that I was helping him with. Exhilarated by this sudden success, I brought new sheets out, and worked Jose through the sheets taking time to stop at each mistake so he could learn. It would seem that the connection had been made. Jose was really striving for excellence and I had to help him.

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“Are you going to be coming back next week? We need to play basketball!” Jose related his thoughts as we made our way back from the lounge. At this point I was shot as I still was surprised at how well Jose had done. I had challenged him and made the problem and solution very real to Jose, and Jose had responded in a terrific way. But still I had it in me to keep up the conversation with my little pal. “Well, not next week cause there’s fall break, but when I do come back we’ll play basketball sometime, okay?” I was grinning my corny grin again as we passed by the classroom to pick up his mixed martial arts coat that he bought in part because of my martial arts training. “Okay, because I think we can be handsome and good at basketball geniuses too.” I laughed as I opened the door to his cafeteria. “I believe can be whatever it is that you set your mind to, buddy. But not too athletic if you keep eating all my hot Cheetos.” Jose laughed back and gave me a high-five before dashing off to get his snack and prepare for his next class. I watched him run off before turning back to help Anne with her student.

 

“I try to say give up…but then I see your face…and unconquered love runs through my---!”

“DARNIT KEVIN PLEASE BE QUIET!” I was back at the commuter lounge and I was already feeling the vibes of love for my voice from my awesome classmates. But nothing could really dampen my smile for that day. When I looked back I could see that Jose had really taken his education seriously, if only for a short time. That is what the teacher must do. Bring about a desire to learn in the child so that he can begin to unlock his potential and see the horizons that are in store for him if he continues on. To tell you the truth, I probably did an abysmal job trying to do this for the first time, but like Jose and handsome, athletic, normal geniuses before him, I too need to learn from where I faltered and stand up where I slipped and fell. In doing this I feel that I and so many people can really connect to the kids and students and give them something to fight for. Maybe we inspire them for just a second. Maybe it’s for a minute or two minutes or an hour or two hours. Maybe good teachers inspire for lifetimes and truly give children like Jose a chance to see things from a new and challenging perspective. But I’m nowhere near there. All I can do now is prepare and try and do better next time I go to Escuela Vieau. But right then, as I picked my backpack up and prepared to leave to knock out that lab report, all I did was smile. “Why are you in such a good mood, Kevin?” someone would ask. “Oh…” I grinned back, “I’m just striving for excellence. And striving for excellence is always a reason to smile.”

"There is no limit..there are only plateaus.." - Bruce Lee