Starting this trip, I was most excited about the biking aspect of this summer, however I have come to realize that some of my most meaningful experiences have been in our learning festivals. I began this summer thinking that teaching kids would not be too terribly hard. You just say some things, and the kids follow some instructions, and hopefully at the end of an hour and a half they learn some things that may get them into/enhance their interest in stem. Anyone who has ever taught or worked with kids will know, there is a lot more to it than that.
Kids will ask questions you never thought they would. They think about the world in a way that is so unique that it makes it hard sometimes to understand the questions they are asking (especially the really young kids). This kind of youngness and naiveté is particularly refreshing, especially coming from a place like MIT, where, at least in the freshman level classes, there is a right way to think and people go about it in a very familiar way.
This can lead to kids asking some questions that neither Maile nor I have the answers to. It is very humbling to look a middle/elementary school child in the eye and tell them that you do not know. Even. through the uncomfortableness, I found that I really liked the kids who asked the hard questions, as they made me think, and reminded me of the curiosity that brought me into stem in the first place, dulled over time by P-sets and GPA's.
I have a lot more respect for teachers, especially my mother, who teaches the same age range I have been. It really requires a lot of patience to teach kids and keep them on track without forcing them to do the activities by the book. It would be really easy sometime to become forceful and intimidate the kids into being quite when doing our activities, but that is not what a good teacher is about. It is not forcing kids to learn, it is guiding them and hoping they learn something by the end.
I apologize if this post has rambled a little bit, but I thought it would be a good idea to get some of my thoughts about this out there as we only have one learning festival left. Much love to all the teachers reading this. The biggest shout out to all the kids we taught this summer, you all have really changed my life.
- Bill