Tuesday, February 12, 2008

String Cheese, Twizzlers and Legos


How I got roped into playing with Polly-O String Cheese, Twizzlers, and Legos on a Saturday night I’ll never know. It started out innocent enough. I was approached about being a note taker for a learning disabled student. The proposition was simple enough all I had to do was sit in on one of her classes and take notes for her. At the end of the day I’d email those notes out to her, nothing more, but she became so comfortable with me that one class turned to three; note taking turned into the occasional home work help and now it was morphing into tutoring.


My friends were less than thrilled that I couldn’t go out with them. They’d wanted to go back to the bar we’d been to last week and stalk hook up with the Inuit we’d met the week before. “Bring her with you!” they whined. “Can’t she’s got too much homework and a bio exam to study for." “What are you her mother?!” I shook my head, “You don’t need me there. He digs females with brains. Just go around reciting Einstein’s theory of relativity." One of my friends snorted at that. Rather than take my advice they decided to drop the bar plans, deciding that without me there it wouldn’t be fun. Then the BF called, “Why is she still there?” “Because the fates planned it that way.” “Suppose we had plans?" he whined. “Didn’t I tell you during the week that I’d be working with her today?” “Yeah you did. “So what’s the problem?” I knew what the problem was. His mom had arrived unannounced from PA for the weekend the night before and I’d been too busy with my research to go visit her. It was now 11 pm and the tutoring session was still going on and given the fact that I had a paper due in a few days Sunday wasn’t looking too good either. “Look I’m sorry I can’t stop in to see your mom, but you and I know the visit wouldn't be a quick thing and I need to get my work done.” “Well I thought you’d be done by now.” “I’m not going to rush her.” “All I’m saying is what if we had plans today?” “But we didn’t. So relax.” I shot back.

I returned to the tutoring. No matter how many times we went over the notes she wasn’t really grasping the bio lesson. Then all of a sudden I got an idea and this is why I was sitting at my dining room table using Polly-O String Cheese, Twizzlers, and Legos as visual aids as I explained the workings of cells, DNA structure, genetics, and the immune system to my friend. As I went through each explanation using my props I saw a light go on in her head. Excitedly she’d yell out,”Oh I got it! I got it!”

When the session was over I quizzed her and she’d gotten everything right. She was beaming, seriously her face was glowing. The look on her face meant more to me than anything in this world. No amount time of spent with my friends or BF could’ve equaled the natural high I felt at that moment plus the Twizzlers satisfied my sweet tooth.

Labels: education

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