Reading and Writing

I am very eager to begin our service-learning portion of this class. Before our first class, I had no idea that it was a service-learning English class. However, when Professor Stockman announced that we would be tutoring young children in English I grew very excited. Although English has never been my best subject, I love working with children. I have babysat for several years and have been a camp counselor for young children at my local YMCA. I am always hopeful that they will look up to me as a role model.

To some reading and writing is something they love to do, although it is important to me, sometimes it is quite a pain and a lot of the time it doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand how someone can love reading an autobiography but to each their own. However, I completely understand the importance of learning to read and write. I could never imagine not knowing how to express myself through words, especially since I learned from such a young age. I cannot imagine what Malcolm X felt while writing letters to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. He could not express what he wanted to say because he didn’t have the skills to do so. However, during his time in prison, he taught himself how to write. Malcolm X’s first step was to write everything from the dictionary and then read it out loud over and over again. Soon, he was able to read and understand books. In prison, he had absolutely no distractions as we do in school. We have so many things going on and so many different things we want to do. Even though I do not love reading, I wish I had more time to dedicate to reading an interesting book.

Perhaps this service-learning program will introduce me to a new side of reading and writing. I am hopeful that this program will be a very good experience to further challenge my English skills and perhaps I can be a sponsor of literacy for one of the students I will work with. Alexie Sherman became a successful writer from his sponsors, Superman comics and his father’s love for books. Perhaps I will be able to help students find their passion for reading and writing. Some may look at this volunteering experience as just another way to get to “the end”. By volunteering once a week, this will help get you into your next step after university. This could be graduate school, medical school, or a job. This is because this is what our country values. It is important to be “big players with big bucks” according to Edmundson. Unfortunately, we aren’t learning or being taught for the right reasons all the time. Although some things may be of interest to us, sometimes they’re not. As students, we don’t put all our effort into the work that we have because we have our own lives outside the classroom. Professors also have their own lives outside of the classroom, they have families, hobbies, and other things to worry about. So, sometimes, neither the professor nor the student put in the right amount of effort to get something from the course. However, many years after college when you run into an obstacle, you won’t remember a specific chapter of your biology course, you will remember the determination that you learned throughout your years at university.