I am blessed

So today was interesting....I started my first day of the service learning, which entails going down the road a bit to this tiny elementary school..While its nothing like some sort of dirt-floor, hole in the wall school in sub-saharan africa, it is most definately below the commonly held standards of most back home..so that was the first initial gut check, there were a few more..but i left with a newfound appreciation for teachers of any variety..
today i was working with 4 young guys with some of their math issues, which goin in I was honestly a little nervous, because math isn't really my thing...but its just 3rd and 4th grade division chris surely you can't mess that up, right? ...im pretty sure i didn't, and now i am a firm believer in the whole check your work philosophy(really thats an awesome idea, sure wish i would have used that back in the day...eesh) anywhoo today's long division practice was a great refresher course for both me and the little guy..he's the only one whose name i forgot..then i moved on to help james...now as soon as he walked in the room i knew there was something different about him and spotted it immediately...james, a great kid, sadly has down syndrome and is 14...but has the maturity level of about a 2nd grader...his problem today was counting change...quarters, dimes and nickels....pennys really threw him off....what was the saddest part was i flipped through his book to check his past work, and wanted to make sure he could do the problems he got checked off a few weeks ago..simple multiplication 253 x 3 = ....i let him write it on the little chalk board she gave us and he started to add the numbers...using the "stick" method, which i learned was drawing lines and then goin back to count them...this was a step ha, but hardly progress...it was made evident that he obviously had no idea how to do any of the problems on the page...which meant some one else had just done the work for him...thats not learning...what was even worse was when the principal walked in to tell me that james is a little slow and to just "do what you can with him, he doesn't get things"...she said all of this in front of him as if he is deaf...he isn't, haha as he reminded me several times that i was writing on the chalk board to hard and it was hurting his ears,when i was barely pressing at all...it kinda upset me both what the principal said and the way she said it..i wanted to explain to her that 1. he isn't deaf 2. he isn't a little slow, he has down syndrome, which is a genetic disorder far beyond his or anyone's control...which doesn't make him a dicipline problem..and 3. that with attitudes like that, he will never get any help on the island, and will probably spend the remainder of his life being put down and not helped due to the close mindedness on the island!! ...ok so it ruffled my feathers a bit, and brandon (mississippi guy) and i were both pretty fired up when we left the school...anywhoo the two other kids had different problems, one with rounding(which used to give me fits as well) and then some other conversions..for the most part goodtimes, and im really looking forward to going back in the morning...it should be noted that brandon was working with kids who were like 1st grade and having trouble focusing in general..so after he got them calmed down it was time for them to go home...it was a frustrating afternoon in some regards, but i have a good feeling about this one...

"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten."- B. F. Skinner