Learning and The "Lost Causes"

Last Friday, my class and I met at the Marin County Community School to introduce ourselves to the students that we would be working with throughout the semester. I found myself reminiscing about my first experience with the school. I went in nervous and not sure of what to expect. As I was led from the office to the classroom, I looked at the students and was extremely intimidated. Having been sheltered so much as a child and into my teens, I wasn’t sure how to go about tutoring. I sat in the classroom surrounded by students in dark green polo shirts. I was so naïve that thinking about it now makes me laugh.

Going in last Friday was completely different. I knew what to expect. I wasn’t as naïve as I was the first time. I was more comfortable and I knew what these students were like. At first, I had imagined them as just ne’er-do-wells and just generally bad kids, but by tutoring at MCCS my freshman year, I learned more about them. Most of the students wanted to get out of the school and start making their way in the world. They wanted to go to college and start working. Some wanted to be nurses, technicians, even artists. These aspirations are overlooked so frequently, however. Society has conditioned us that these kids were only up to no good and, in the best case scenario; they’ll end up as fry cooks or in less savory occupations just because of the way they talk or the color of their skin. These students are the “forgotten” and the “lost causes.” It’s exactly these descriptions that we, as a class, are working to change.

In my reading of City Kids, City Schools, I read the story of a teacher who was teaching in low-income cities and he recalled that he was teaching the same students that others had expected him to be because of his color and his race. He used this experience of stereotyping in his youth to help better teach the students he was currently teaching. The author stated, “As teachers and researchers, we are taught to be objective; to teach what we know, not who we are. But all teaching is autobiographical,” (p. 86). It is important to teach each and every bit of relevant information according to the curriculum, but as teachers, it just as important to teach from experience. While teachers do have to maintain a sense of keeping most of your life separate from their work as a teacher, I feel that if there is a personal story that can illicit an emotional or intellectual response, then it should be used (granted that the personal experience is suitable for the classroom environment). The author taught in a way that was unique to him and his experiences and through that he was able to communicate to his students.

Being able to help teach these students is something that I’m excited about. We will be opening doors for these students that they didn’t even know where there. Paulo Freire got this right in saying, “To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge,” (p. 30). I have always felt that I had an innate ability to teach. I want to bring to others new possibilities and new spins on old ideas. I want to succeed by helping others do the same. Freire’s quote practically summarizes my intent with whatever I teach. As a guitar teacher, I can only teach so much before I have to let my student learn on their own. But that’s not exactly always a bad thing! I feel that the main focus on teaching is that we shouldn’t be putting our minds into other peoples’ heads. We should be preparing others’ minds to grow.

What we’re doing is different, but welcome, form of education. We are learning through educating others. This isn’t the regurgitation of facts on paper. This is real world experience. Through experience, we will be learning and making a positive impact in the worlds of other people.

-Gerard Cabarse