Mentoring a hard kid
We are delighted to share this post written by our LHCC Board Chair, about his recent experience on a Tuesday evening working with what he refers to as a “hard kid”. At LHCC, we love the cross-cultural relationships that are being built every week, and this is a testimony of how one of our values, kinship continues to permeate into our programs and relationships. Here is the story …
“Let’s face it. While it can be incredibly rewarding, tutoring can be hard. Particularly when you have one of the “hard” kids. Hard to connect with. Hard to get to speak. Hard to get to bring schoolwork. Hard to keep focused.
I started working with one of those hard kids a few weeks ago. Manuelo (not his real name) is a sweet kid, but his attention span averages about 3 seconds as he has quite pronounced ADHD. The first time we met I felt like I was trying to hang on for dear life as he flitted from one thought to another. I tried the usual questions: “Do you have any homework?” “No.” “Did you bring any schoolwork with you?” “No.” “Would you like to read a book?” “Not really.”
Finally, I asked him what his favorite subject was, and he said “Science.” so I just asked him what in science interested him. We talked for the next 45 minutes about blue stars, black holes, galaxies and solar systems, dinosaurs, the water cycle, photosynthesis, and I just followed where he led the conversation. Since I have a Master’s degree in Engineering, I was able to hang with him pretty well.
The next week he brought a 6th grade science worksheet with him and we worked on that together, with many detours. The fact that it was in Spanish, since he goes to a Spanish-language school, was a bit of a challenge. As we were wrapping up, somehow, I learned that he is interested in coins. I told him that if he brought some homework the next week for us to do together, I would bring some old coins.
True to his promise, he brought three pages of math which we did together, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions. When we finished that, I pulled out a 1982 commemorative silver-half dollar. We talked about how much it weighed and the current market value of silver and I had him calculate the material value. I then told him what this coin sold for on eBay and had him calculate the difference versus the material value. Since the coin celebrated the 250th anniversary of George Washington’s birth I had him calculate when he was born, and how long he lived if he died in 1799. We talked about his role in the Revolutionary War and as the first President of the United States. I referenced an article I had found on the Internet called “Did GW believe in Dinosaurs?”. I had him read that aloud, which gave me a chance to assess his English reading skills. In case you are wondering, the existence of dinosaurs was not theorized until after George Washington died. There was lots of interesting information about the discovery of dinosaur fossils and how it became clear that they were the remains of reptiles rather than large mammals. I pulled out a gold coin and we did the math on how much it was worth, and compared that to the value had it been silver. From one simple coin we delved into various subjects ~ math, reading, history, and science.
The point is this. If you have a “hard kid”, see if you can find something that interests them, and use it as a gateway into their world. Be innovative in using that topic to explore different subjects.
We went right up to the end of the tutoring time and he was fully engaged and on task the entire time. As we were getting ready to leave, I gave him the Washington half-dollar to keep. He was over the moon! And so was I!” Mr. Ozzie January 2024
