Otherness Experience

4/10/03
ARTS 250

For the past two weeks I have been volunteering at South Bethlehem’s Neighborhood after school program. For an hour and 15 minutes 4 days a week, I helped elementary school kids with their homework. The experience has been quite rewarding as well as challenging. My initial reaction was culture shock, since most of the children are Hispanic or Black. Most of them can speak Spanish, and some of them can only speak Spanish. I am the youngest person in my family and I have not been around elementary school kids since I think I was in grade school. Walking into this classroom definitely brought me back to my childhood. Being the youngest I can remember my mom help my brother with his homework and actually wanting homework of my own to do. Call me a big nerd but I thought homework was fun in elementary school, fun stories and coloring books is all I remember. I had forgotten about the frustrations and difficulties I had learning grammar, spelling, and basic math skil...