Youth is My Salvation

April 24, 2010

And here is an example why:

This past Monday was Monteverde Day. School got out at noon so everyone could attend a community picnic celebrating the 50-something anniversary of the Quakers arriving in Monteverde. I did not want to go. Socializing saps me of my energy and I had spent the entire weekend socializing and was depleted. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in a field, roasting in the Costa Rican mid-day sun and try to make conversation. Please don’t let my attitude misrepresent the charming and interesting population of Monteverde. It’s not for lack of cool people to talk with, it’s my own idiosyncrasy (I’m trying to put a charming twist on my grumpiness).

A few hours of class with charming kids on Monday morning had put me in a considerably better mood (although still grumpy), and by dismissal I was considering attending the picnic. Two of my students sat munching food on the steps of the library. One is a third grade girl I will call FutureFamousArtist. She is the most insightful, creative, articulate and loving kid I’ve ever known. Next to her was a fourth grade girl who I’ve struggled coming up with a name for. I’ve settled on Down, since she is truly very down in all senses of the word, and I’m not sure there is any more admirable quality a person can have. Needless to say, I totally adore these two kids.

I walked past these two students on Monday afternoon with a Should-I-Stay-Or-Should-I-Go? scowl on my face.

“What’s wrong?” called Down from her perch on the steps.

“I’ve been grumpy all day and I’ve done a great job of hiding it and now that my professional responsibilities are over, I’m letting it all out!” I barked at her.

She smiled and already I felt a little better. She waved me over and I sat down next to her. She looked up at me.

“Who was that guy you brought to Frisbee?” she asked, innocently. I feigned my own innocence.

“What guy?”

“That guy. His name was like, a letter of the alphabet.”

Busted. Ji had come to Frisbee when he was here a month ago and had even sat in on part of my class. Not a single student had asked a question about him, until now.

“Oh,” I said with a smile, “you mean Ji.”

“Yeah, Ji,” she said with a little laugh. “Who’s he?”

“He’s Ji,” I responded, still avoiding. I don’t want to lie to people, but I’m also not that eager to divulge personal information.

Down laughed. “Is he your boyfriend?” she asked. No avoiding this one.

“Yes, he is my boyfriend.” FutureFamousArist had been listening quietly the entire time. She piped up now:

“Do you love him?” Jeeze, they sure are direct little buggers.

“Yes”, I answered. “I love him very much.”

“He’s your boooooooyfriend”, laughed Down. She asked a few more questions about why he still lives in NYC and then she and FutureFamousArtist started talking about their favorite foods and I was off the hook.

And I knew, that if I were going to have a chance at a good time that afternoon, I had to convince these two kids to hang out with me. And I paused, wondering if it is appropriate for a twenty-six year old woman to really, really want to hang out with an eight and nine year old. But I asked them anyway.

They made the appropriate phone calls, grabbed their bags, and we were off. FutureFamousArtist had to bring home her guitar and struggled with it as we walked down the driveway of the school. It was almost as big as she was, and probably weighed just about as much also. Down took one look at her struggling and said, “We’ll take turns.” Shamed – my thought had been, “There is no way I’m helping this kid lug that thing.”

We stopped by the Cheese Factory for a milkshake, which I needed their help finishing, passed by the store for a snack to pass and then headed to the picnic. Once we arrived at the picnic they took off and I didn’t see them again until the following day at school but I could not have been more content.

Youth is My Salvation, Example Two:

The next day at school I was sitting outside at a picnic table with a group of five students doing a phonics program called Wilson. Wilson is for kids who are still struggling with decoding fluency and accuracy and spelling. Wilson is old school and very teacher directed. Wilson, for me, is boring but useful.

We were doing a spelling activity that entails me saying a sound, sentence or word, the students repeating it and then writing it. Zero room for creative thought or interpretation. No free thinking here. So, it should come as no surprise that after every repetition at least one student would start a conversation as they wrote. One cannot be patient all of the time and last Tuesday, this was driving me crazy.

“Why,” I half snapped, half grumbled, “do you have to have a conversation between every single question?”

Four of the five students feel silent, recognizing that they had just been reprimanded. Down, seated to my left, looked up at me with a smile.

“Because,” she said quietly, “we’re kids.”

P.S. – Live-scorpion-in-the-house count is up to five, after finding a fat black female cruising the walls of my bathroom in the middle of the night earlier this week. Captured and tossed successfully