SEIZING A TEACHABLE MOMENT

Fairfield Daily Republic
The Other Side

Seizing a teachable moment
By Kelvin Wade July 1, 2010

In June of last year, after my honor roll granddaughter, Lauryn, graduated from the sixth grade, Cathi and I asked her mother if Lauryn could come over during summer vacation so I could tutor her and get her ready for junior high. Her mother (and Lauryn) didn't think she needed it, and, after all, summer vacation was a time of play.

I'm not going to claim that Lauryn's lack of summer tutoring resulted in her whiling away the hours, conferring with the flowers and consulting with the rain. But in her seventh grade year she did go from the honor roll to a C student (even battling three Fs at one point) to her and everyone's horror.

The fact is summer vacations away from learning produce dim-witted kids. Studies that have been conducted for more than 100 years show that students score lower on standardized tests after summer than before.

Most students lose two months worth of mathematical computation skills during the summer. Low-income students lose more than two months of reading skills.

Lauryn's parents gave me the green light for tutoring her this summer.

While I quickly raised the bar, giving her 10th-grade level vocabulary words, algebra tests and assigning her to read William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies,' there was something else I wanted to address with her right up front.

I knew her social studies class had watched 'The Diary of Anne Frank' right before school let out. Afterward, on her MySpace page, Lauryn had posted a lot of pictures of her friends. Two photos seized my attention. They were of several of her classmates with faux Hitler mustaches giving Nazi salutes. She'd captioned one of the photos, 'Go Germans!'

I spoke with her about why she should remove the photos, which she did. While I didn't think I had a budding anti-Semite on my hands, as she and I had briefly discussed the Holocaust in the past, I knew she needed a broader understanding of the subject.

I thought of assigning her to read Elie Wiesel's haunting book 'Night,' based on his own horrific experiences at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. But knowing Lauryn and how visually oriented she is, I knew that a movie would engage her more.

So last week we watched 'Schindler's List,' Steven Spielberg's award-winning motion picture about Oskar Schindler, a war profiteer who ended up saving the lives of more than 1,000 Jews who he employed from the Krakow Ghetto.

She sat quietly through the movie for the most part, asking questions every now and then for clarification. We discussed it afterward.

During our next session, we discussed 'Lord of the Flies' and some of the parallels between this allegorical, fictional book and Nazi Germany. Lauryn aced tests I'd prepared on both the book and the movie.

So in addition to the study skills and academics, this incident has impelled me to broaden our focus to other subjects and issues over this summer.

While I hope the study sessions and work we do this summer will pay off academically for Lauryn in the fall, the thing I'm most thrilled and humbled about is the chance to help form the kind of person she will be in the future. That's the most rewarding thing. Peace.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

ADDITIONAL NOTES: She's smart but like a lot of kids her age she'd rather be texting and having fun with her friends. Who wouldn't? I try to explain to her that adults are no different. Most adults would rather go to the fair, the beach, sleep or have a BBQ than go in to work. Most people would rather do something fun than something hard.

My inspiration has been my brother Tony who has done such an excellent job homeschooling his daughter Kaci. Tony expanded the classroom to include art projects, trips to the zoo, and other places so it all wasn't just sitting at a table writing. I'm trying to do that with Lauryn. Trying to keep her on track. I know she can do it..

We have good talks together. With me, she's a focused, very good student. One of the reasons homeschooling works so well is the student can't show up late, ditch class or fail to hand in an assignment. I'm right there with her so she knows she's not going to get away with anything. And she produces.

What we're working on is her continue to produce good work on her own without me right there. I'm trying to show her how to study and how to get her work done. AND I'm showing her that getting her work done will enable to do all of those fun things she wants to do. We have a saying. "You've have to do what you're supposed to do in order to do what you want to do."

If her parents don't work and bring home the bacon, then they don't get to keep their house and car. If she doesn't do her schoolwork, then she doesn't get those clothes, time with her friends and phone/computer privileges. You've got to earn those things.

The Nazi thing threw me. I wanted to fly off the handle but I had to compose myself. Kids do dumb things. Especially when they don't know what they're talking about. Teens often want to hide it when something moves them to not seem soft. I get that. But it disturbed me that they'd just seen "The Diary of Anne Frank." But I'm pleased with Lauryn's response.

She's a good kid and if she can stay focused, she can soar.

(It's actually more complicated than this but I'm somewhat constrained in what I want to write in a public forum. )