Tunbridge and Cincinnati

This week for service learning I worked with the 3^rd graders, which was a nice switch up from the hectic kindergarteners. I was able to make better connections and have more fluid conversations with them since I think their attention span is much longer than the kindergarteners.

             During my two hours at Tunbridge there came a point where one boy made fun of a little girl. I discovered this was not uncommon, third graders can be surprisingly mean when it comes to name calling and excluding others. I thought this type of behavior happened more in middle school but I guess it starts in elementary school. Anyways, the girl was upset and crying and out of nowhere another girl started chasing and screaming at this boy, she was the girl’s best friend. I was amazed at how determined she was to make this boy feel bad and apologize for hurting her friend. The whole rest of the day she was there to comfort her friend and stayed by her side. All I could think about was how great of a friend this girl was. I guess my friends back in 3^rd grade would be there for me if I was bullied, but I know they wouldn’t chase some boy around the playground if he called me a name.

            You could relate the little girl who got bullied to the speaker of Mitsuye Yamada’s poem “Cincinnati”. She was all alone when the incident occurred and for no good reason was made fun of and got hurt (emotionally). Thankfully for this girl, unlike the speaker, her moment of being “known” was having good friends come to her rescue and reassure her that she’s okay, and accepted for who she is. Rather than the speaker’s reassurance, which is that people knew her for her race and how she looked rather than for who she was.

            Although they might be small and stretched connections, I am always surprised at how every week I can find connections between the readings and my service learning trips. I guess that just means that from everything you read and everything you do, there are so many different lessons that you can learn and perspectives to see from, even if it is not the most blatant / main point.