For the second year during the February school break, my wife and I accompanied area high school students to help rebuild New Orleans. This year we took 17 students from Old Town and Orono High Schools (and one each from Bangor HS and Hampden Academy) to help rebuild two houses under the auspices of the St. Bernard Project in St. Bernard Parish (southeast New Orleans).
On one house, we began the tedious but important work of "mold remediation" where for a day and a half, 14 of us scrubbed the invisible mold spores from every inch of the studs, rafters, walls, and beams. Wearing respirators we scrubbed our hearts out...not glamorous work, but critical in the 8-12 week cycle of rebuilding a Katrina-damaged home. Later in the week, all 22 of us spent a day out in the country on the bayou, replanting Cypress and Oak trees to provide wind cover and prevent erosion, replacing the trees killed by the flooding.
Spending one week with 17 high school students is quite the experience and I loved (nearly) every minute of it. (Ok, except for the last two hours in the van listening to hip hop on the way home from Logan Airport...but that was my problem!) As I reflected on what I learned by this year's experience I couldn't help but see the connection with EDC 533. Here is what I learned about how adolescents learn and what is important to them. Do you see a connection to our discussions about curriculum and learning? What do these issues have to do with what our curriculum is and how we make it work?
• Adolescents want to do things—physical things...and they want to do them now. No one minded steel-brushing mold off every surface of a house because they knew how important this first step was in rebuilding a house for someone who didn't have one. And also, because they were working side-by-side with their friends.
• Teenagers want to change the world and they want to do that now too. Not when they are older...they recognize how much they can accomplish and they are anxious to get on with it. Conversely, they have too much tolerance for wasting their time, when they could be doing something useful.
• Adults are absolutely critical in the lives of young people—as role models, mentors, friends, and yes, as adults. Kids need people to fulfill parental roles (whether mom and dad or other caregivers), but they also need opportunities to learn from other caring adults.
• Young adults are amazingly tolerant and understanding of others. They are empathetic and caring about the life situations of others.
• And, of course, they are just plain fun to be around!
2 comments:
Ed,
Thank you for posting about your week. I did realize several things while reading your blog. First, I need to stop my whining about our classroom leaks. We are extremely fortunate to have what we have and I sometimes need to be reminded of that.
In terms of curriculum, I couldn't agree more. Students love to DO things and learn so much more than by simply sitting and hearing about it. What those students will forever hold in their hearts versus their peers who played video games all vacation - incomparable!
I also think that young adults can be empathetic and caring as long as we are active in teaching them. It is too easy to get comfortable in our lives and forget that others do not have it so easy. We all know that kid who laughs or shrugs off others' misfortune. We need to make sure the curriculum covers empathy and kindness just as much as "the academics."
Ed,
I absolutely loved hearing about your trip to New Orleans. When I first took on the "task" of implementing service learning in my classroom, I was dreading the experience, envisioning the complicated nature of getting students motivated to get involved. Wow, was I ever and wrong and gratefully so. Over the past two years, my students have shown more empathy and creativity at attempting to solve real problems than many adults which I know. Their innate desire to be in constant motion is an attribute that bodes well when facilitating their engagement in real world situations.
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