Returning back to Davidson after the winter break has made me realize that I may have a flaw in my service learning project. After focusing on teaching the students teambuilding and the importance of respect for one another, individuality and culture I think I may have missed the mark. I can see that there is a strong interest in learning about other cultures and ethnicities, but the most important subject – EDUCATION – does not interest them as much as it should. Many of them feel like they can do without education, that earning just the right amount of F’s and B’s will earn them a passing grade in their classes. Some don’t care about school; others care, but do not have enough motivation. With the second half of the year rapidly coming to a close, I feel as if I set myself up for failure and may not have enough time to make them realize how important is to take this free education and use it to their advantage.
Every time I step into the classroom I think of Jaime Escalante (“Stand and Deliver”), Ron Clark (“The Ron Clark Story”), Erin Gruwell (“Freedom Writers”) and countless other fiction and non-fiction teachers turned hero. I think of how easy the movies made it seem they could spark interest in their students and connect with them. Is that real?? Can that really happen? I think of how hard it was for me to even get a handful of these students to open up; maybe I should have taken them out to dinner like Michelle Pfeiffer’s character did in “Dangerous Minds.” It all seems so surreal to think that there is a problem motivating students to realize the importance of education that it is so difficult, yet there are so many movies and books that may it seem so easy. Where is the truth in all of this? What is the solution to the problem?
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The answer begins with people like you who are willing to see that there are deep and complex core issues that do not unravel as well as they seem to in those uplifting movies. Yet, many of the movies you mention are true and I am sure that those people were motivated by the same hard truths that you are experiencing and that they also felt overwhelming frustration and futility. All of the world's problems need people who are willing to see them and acknoweldge their existence. This is the first step--the willingness to see what is painful and frightening--and then, the challenge is not to go numb, to find a way to keep taking those steps forward and to acknowledge the tiny moments when you have had an effect. This is what those nice moments in the movies are--let yourself also see that you really are in those scenes as well.
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