First Day of Service

Eana Meng ’19
13 March 2017

“The primary, the most urgent requirement is the promotion of education. It is inconceivable that any nation should achieve prosperity and success unless this paramount, this fundamental concern is carried forward.” – ‘Abdu’l – Bahá

“What are you guys doing here?” the teacher asked us in one of the three languages taught at the District of Columbia International School.

It was a sincere question – blunt in English translation, but honest in its meaning. We sheepishly answered, “We’re here to be as helpful as we can be.”

Today was our first day volunteering at DCI School, a public charter school aimed at fostering “multi-lingual, culturally competent and committed” students (from their Mission Statement). We arrived in the morning, around nine, and had a debrief meeting with the principal of the school, Simon Rodberg. A journalist-turned-educator, Mr. Rodberg has spent time at our rival school, and later at our very own Harvard Education School for a Master’s degree. He is a deeply committed and passionate man, and cared about catering to our interests and skillset. He was given a hard task – our plans with a previous school fell through the weeks leading up to our trip, and Mr. Rodberg graciously allowed us to volunteer at his school. Taking seven college students and putting them in the school for a week is akin to placing seven new but temporary parts in a complex machine with its own rhythm and hum. How can those seven pieces fit in without disturbing the machine’s pace and efficiency, but maximally be both utilized and benefitted? There is no perfect solution, and it requires a lot of – pun intended – adjustment.

Adjustment takes place on all fronts. For the school’s students, it’s getting used to seeing a college student in their classroom for a few days. Curiosity abounds for them and there certainly was no lack of direct questions today. From “who are you?” to “what other schools did you get in to?”, the students, refreshingly, asked exactly what they wondered. Teachers, too, were curious. For them, adjustment takes form of how to make use of us while also considering what we wouldn’t mind doing. When asking if I would be okay with taking three slightly-on-the-rowdy side students to the library to help them finish their work, the teacher seemed apologetic, as if it was a lot to ask of me. Later, when she learned that I was hoping to become a doctor one day, she was shocked. She didn’t verbally ask the question, but the sentiment was the same as the first teacher’s: what was I doing there? Why was I spending my spring break helping make a chicken dish, encouraging a clearly very smart but disinterested middle schooler to finish his vocabulary practice, or sitting next to a focused student, treading the line between engaging her in a conversation in a foreign language and allowing her to finish her work?

We here for both them and us, undoubtedly. There is no shame in doing service for the sake of learning and educating oneself; this experience is invaluable in understanding and figuring out how to best help. One teacher told us that this is a “ground zero” of sorts, the realest of realities of our American education system. The day to day in and outs of education are not pretty – as the minute hand ticks by, the long hours are filled with nearly every imaginable happening. Students yelling at each other, throwing things at each other, students yelling at the teachers, students listening perfectly to the teachers, students finishing their work quickly so that they can read a book by Neil deGrasse Tyson, students eager to learn, students who simply just do not want to be at school – it’s all there. The school is truly a microcosm of the larger world we’re all living in, and it’s an amplified, unrestrained version.

But, we’re just here to be as helpful as we can be. In whatever shape or form that takes, there is nothing beneath us, nothing too “mundane” to ask of us. Of course, there are things we feel more comfortable, more interested in helping with, but that’s where our adjusting comes into place. We’re learning and understanding that most teaching moments are not romantic, only the very few select instances are – a teacher’s small sigh of relief, a student finally getting a concept, a student feeling a boost in her confidence. These small moments might not have changed the macro-world, but on the micro and equally as significant level, they might have made that teacher or that student feel just a little better – and for us, that’s the best we can hope for.

Over a home-cooked dinner tonight, we all wondered, what impact are we making here? We may never know, but for me, that’s okay. My high school English teacher once told me that seldom does he ever get to see the products of his time and love, and he counts himself very lucky when he hears from a student years later. And he’s okay with that, and carries on with just as much hope and dedication – safe in the knowledge that education has been, and always will be, what defends us from a deluge of ignorance.

Day 5

Friday was our last day of the ASB trip! We started off the day at the LAYC to reflect on our week with Diana and Dominique. We wrote down one thing that we learnt on one post-it note, and on another post-it we wrote a positive about the week and a delta (change/improvement) for the week. Having never been to Washington D.C. before, I really appreciated the opportunity to learn about the real D.C. beyond the shiny government districts. There is a real disparity between the wealth and privilege of central areas and the suburbs. Gentrification is a real problem with people not being able to afford housing in areas that they grew up in due to rising housing prices, so they have to move out to Maryland or Virginia and commute in to D.C. Although immigration is a thorny issue in many countries, including my own, the U.K, the demographics and situation is always different and I didn’t have a proper understanding of the problem in America as seeing as I’m in the Harvard bubble most of the time. LAYC explained the impact of immigration reform that affects young people, and how they have tailor their services to be of most benefit to them. For example, undocumented students are not able to get financial aid for college from the US Government or through scholarships, making it impossible to access college. Also, at Roosevelt High School a boy whom we interviewed for the Escalera pre-college program (that LAYC runs), relies heavily on a Spanish speaking counsellor to communicate, but not every immigrant has such support when transitioning to the education system in the US, which has a detrimental effect on their education. To learn about these things was such a thought-provoking experience for me and had me really thinking the education system in America.

I loved meeting the students across different schools, and they were all so smart and driven, but at an inherent disadvantage due to their status or economic background. As a first generation student, I really enjoyed helping others that were in my position a few years ago by dispelling myths about college and Harvard. For the improvement, I wish that we were able to stay with one group over the course of the week to maintain consistency and build relationships over the week, but also keep the high school visits. Of course we can’t save the world in one week but Dominique told us that even planting the seed in a child so they start thinking about higher education as an achievable possibility is a good first step. At the Raymond school two eighth graders asked Diego about how much it costs to go to Harvard and they couldn’t believe it when he explained the concept of grants and a free education for whose with a household income of less than $65,000. They also asked me whether you could go to lecture in your pyjamas, and I told them at Harvard it’s actually pretty common and at college you can honestly do whatever you want (within limits of course!). Although there were silly moments to the conversation, it dispelled their perception of college as a exclusive institution where you pay thousands of dollars just to be restricted academically like you often are in school. It intrigued them to start thinking about higher education as a serious possibility.

Day 4

On Thursday, we went first to Raymond Middle School and then to Roosevelt High School.

At Raymond, I was helping the second and third graders with their homework. They did not have any homework, and so I was in charge of finding something educational for them to do. This proved rather difficult because all of the children were at drastically different levels, and it was difficult to coordinate an activity that could engage them all at the same time. We began to do group reading, but group reading was rather hard because two out of six of the children were constantly trying to read over their peers. I found this really interesting, actually. Immediately I could notice a strange sort of power dynamic within the kids. The boy who could read the best parked up with the boy who needed the most help, and he refused to separate. At first, I found this so kind because I figured that he was helping his friend. Later, I realized that there was a simple downfall to this: the boy who needed help ended up becoming very dependent on his friend to intervene on his behalf, and thus he would stop reading sentences half-way if they proved too difficult and allowed his friend to finish them for him. In the end, I had him pair up with another boy, and then I was able to help both of them more intensively. Reading with six children was already so difficult, and it really made me better understand how complicated it must be to teach a class of twenty or thirty children. Does this mean that the reading level is dependent on the student, the teacher, the parents, or the peers? How does a child fall behind? And why is it often that a  child who has fallen behind stays behind? I don’t think that I left with any answers — I think that it is important to ponder these questions over and over again.

At Roosevelt, we proceeded to interview high school juniors who were applying to LAYC’s Escalera Program. I was paired up with a boy who had just immigrated from El Salvador. While everyone conducted their interviews in English, I had to interview the boy in Spanish and I found that he had one of the most powerful stories. At the same time, he was hesitant to share about himself. When I had asked him what his largest obstacle was, he could not think of one. I realized that the question was perhaps too direct, and so I shared part of my story to make him feel more comfortable. And by the end of the interview, I realized that he had a story that I would never be able to fully understand, and I told him how truly powerful that story was. I thanked him for sharing it with me. I realized how difficult it must be to learn English at age 16. He wanted to be a professor because he wanted to be able to inspire others, but he felt so behind because he was still struggling with speaking and learning the language. It was so striking to me to see this language barrier in full action: not only was he hindered on a day-to-day basis, but his dreams for the future were also impacted by “feeling behind” in his path towards his goals. Of course, this was discouraging, and I cannot even come to imagine how discouraged he must feel at times, but it was really incredible to see all the people around him who were encouraging him to apply to the program and to push himself further. I think that LAYC is such an incredible program because they don’t just attempt to close the gaps in education, but they strive to create connections between students and their mentors. And it was really an honor to be part of these connections, even for a week.

Day 3

The metro was shut down today, which precluded the ability for many of the students at Roosevelt High to be able to make the commute to school. Instead we split our group into groups of 3 to travel to two different schools. My group in particular travelled to Sacred Heart, an elementary school that works in a partnership with the Latin American Youth Center. Daniela worked with the first and second grade students while Jazil and I worked with third through fifth grade students. Our work mostly consisted of assisting students with their math homework, a worksheet for practice with simplification and multiplication of fractions and mixed numbers. Although the work is obviously very elementary to a college student, teaching the subject matter proved to be much more than a rudimentary task. As I worked with different students, it was quite easy to assess the level of comprehension that each student had of the material. Their grasp of the material and the quickness with which they were able to learn it determined how long we spent with each child: for some children, the worksheet was only a few minutes, and for others maybe half an hour. While interacting with the students, Jazil and I were learning just as much as the students because we were continuously learning to mold our way of teaching to each individual student. When a student hit a roadblock in their problem solving, we had to quickly adjust the way that we, too, approached the problem. For one girl in particular, it took both Jazil and I about 20 minutes to help a young girl complete one section of her math worksheet, but it was quite rewarding to see the smile on her face when she understood how to simplify her fractions.

            Although it was an enjoyable experience, engaging in one on one interactions with the students brought to light a rather disheartening truth about the education system. Jazil and I were able to witness first hand just how different each student’s method of learning is; we had to work individually with the students to ensure that they not only completed, but also comprehended their homework, but that was with two extra tutors in the room. On any regular day, there is only one teacher in the room teaching a room of children with unique needs. Although some might comprehend the material, there are other students who need more attention and assistance, but this is simply impossible given the amount of time and the amount of available teaching staff. I can understand now why in schools that are severely underfunded, there is a shockingly disproportionate amount of students who are failing, not because they are simply unable to do the work, but because the resources and the teachers needed to help them succeed are unavailable, which ultimately puts these students at a disadvantage. Hopefully, in the future, there will be reform in underfunded schools that will help to decrease the number of structural barriers that are preventing students with high potential from achieving success.

                 

Day 1 – DC

Today was a really exiting day. After the 10 hour trip down from Boston the day before, we were able to finally get hands on deck, exploring LAYC and meeting all the amazing staff that help out the community. When we reached the center, Diana, a Harvard graduate working with LAYC, gave us a tour of the center, as well as a detailed overview of the different areas where LAYC supports the youth community around them. They have awesome facilities for people to sit back and relax after school, sexual education and mental health centres, as well as college and career counselling. During our tour, we will able to meet the CEO of LAYC, who greeted us warmly and detailed the purpose of the institution as well as further develop on the type of relationship LAYC has built with the youth.

Further, we were lucky enough to be part of the escalera program screening process, picking appropriate questions and interview activities for prospective applicants for this pre-college program.