STUDENT REFLECTIONS - Internship at Cristel House - Bre Palmer

Yesterday was my first day at my internship at Christel House (a school for children from poor backgrounds that seeks to break the cycle of poverty). After a couple of assemblies that helped us get acquainted with the school, I was separated from the two other students who are interning with me and put with a grade R (kindergarten) class.
This school was different than your average school in a couple ways. For starters, it is stricter. The children wear uniforms, call teachers “miss” or “mister”, and are quiet and well behaved. Also, they clearly really want to be in school, and have worked very hard to get to where they are. They have the full support of their parents (who are required to volunteer to cook and clean at the school), and the school offers many programs that benefit them and their families on many levels (providing substance abuse, child abuse, and HIV-AIDS education, dental and eye care, etc). Those were the differences I noticed in the first five minutes just looking over the kids sitting in the assembly and glancing around at the posters on the walls, which explained the social services the school had to offer.
The real differences slowly came to the surface throughout the day. Two teachers (and I) were in charge of 40-50 kindergarten-aged kids, many of whom were DESPERATE for attention. When I first sat in class, they smiled shyly at me, and some came over to ask me questions. After the first hour, they were hanging all over me. If I stood up, they crowded me, hugging me, grabbing my hand, and fighting over me. They wanted to me to tie their shoes even if they knew how to, they wanted to me to mix their food up at lunch, and they wanted me to give them my undivided attention, even if only for a minute.
In class, we covered ordinary stuff (like the number nine), but also stuff that isn’t ordinarily covered in American schools (HIV-AIDS prevention, or, how one must “never ever touch another person’s blood). Several classroom posters featured HIV-AIDS (including one that said AIDS Is Deadly Serious and another with a giant red ribbon). It was clear that AIDS had affected many of the children in some way, from losing a loved one to living in fear of being infected.
While the kids were very wild and tiring, I enjoyed my first day. The other teachers seemed exhausted, and I understand why. Instead of teaching, I will mostly be assisting them in simply taking care of the children. My job is to be an extra set of eyes, someone to check the students’ work and make sure they are paying attention. I’m supposed to remind them to keep their hands behind their backs and to go to the bathroom in a single file line. All those things seem easy, if not trivial. However, I know that what I am doing is important.
As I was helping the kids get on the busses to take them home, one little boy hugged me and said, “Miss Bre, are you coming back Monday?” Even though that interaction seems a little cheesy, it really made me feel better working at Christel House. Even though I’m not in a leadership position or working at a political organization, I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile. Just by spending time with these kids and giving them a little attention, I am doing my part to help them towards a better life.