I have got to tell you what happened at tutoring yesterday. I am not making this up. You have seen all those stories of children praising Obama at school, right? Yesterday at the after school tutoring program I participate in my phone rang and I answered it because it was from my new driver, who did say that the car had broken down but then it really hadn't. My two students were fascinated by my iPhone and when it fell on the ground the little girl picked it up and started punching buttons. She hit the Twitter button and it took her to my Twitter feeds. I asked her if she would like me to read a few Tweets. I picked a couple and ended up reading a verse in Job that John Piper posted yesterday. "He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty” (Job 6:14). I asked the little boy and the little girl, "Who is the Almighty?" .... I swear I am not making this up, without skipping a beat the little girl, who can barely speak English, said, "Obama is the Almighty." Thankfully the little boy said,"God." Right here in Tennessee someone thinks Obama is the Almighty.
On a side note, the thing about introducing ideas to these little ones is that they don't stay focused for very long. I try to introduce ideas through their spelling words which I help them practice. The amazing thing is that they DO respond to the weird sentences I give them. Yesterday for SOFT I said, "Shakespeare said 'soft stillness and the night." We had somewhat long conversation about Shakespeare in which the little girl said after looking at a picture of him on my.....iPhone...."Is he a statue?"
The tutoring can get discouraging but I am trying to remember my own concept of little drops of water.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
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7 comments:
What an opportunity you have there.
Wow. Glad you're there!
What is truly frightening is that these little children get these preposterous ideas from big people! God help us!
Oh my goodness! I'm not quite sure what to say to that except to echo Mary and say that it appears you have been placed on a Divine assignment, Cindy.
As challenging as it may be, make a mark while you can.
I always hear at church about opportunities to tutor kids in their regular public school work, and about the opportunity to buy them action figures for Christmas, but what if we tutored them so that they were attuned to wonder? I like what you're doing here by using unexpected sentences. It seems like you're headed in that direction.
Laura,
It is really, really difficult to help the children do their homework because the whole time your brain is screaming that the whole thing is inane. The kids mostly can't do the homework but they are very bright. It is the homework that is beyond ridiculous. It has made me realize that these children do not need more work on skills. They have no interest. They need ideas. Ideas produce excitement which then produce the desire for skills.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could just have a story time? How old are most of the children? Pretty young, I'd imagine.
Linda
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