Impact

With 2 months of vacation falling into my lap, I took it upon myself to find a job. I was hoping to get about 20 hours a week at the restaurant I used to work at, but nope, not hiring. So I turned to the incredible Craig’s List.

Incredible as it is, I found an ad for a temporary Spanish teacher position to give enrichment classes to three and four year olds in Wayzata (where I am). So I responded to the ad. Turns out I went to high school with the young woman that started the company, and the woman they needed a sub for went into labor two weeks early, coincidentally also on the day of my interview. So, I got the job, and a few days later found myself sitting in a circle with a bunch of toddlers, speaking Spanish to their blond-haired, blue-eyed smiling faces.

It’s pretty fun. They are very, very cute and we get to sing a lot (two things I love- cuteness and singing!). And I’m learning all kinds of things, like the word “cuadrado”, when I frantically realized right before going to teach the first lesson on shapes that I had no idea how to say “square” in a language I’m supposedly fluent in! My favorite moment so far was when I was teaching them family members, and I said PaPA and they repeated PApa and I said, no be careful, because PaPA means dad, but PApa means potato…That went over pretty well. When we returned to the PaPA flashcard a few minutes later one kid yelled out, “Potato!”

Although I have done a fair amount of teaching over the years, and have gotten a lot out of it, I maintain that I don’t want to be a teacher. I think it is one of the most admirable and valuable professions in society, but it’s just not for me. I also maintain that everyone impacts everything, and every opportunity is an opportunity to impact something or someone. And I always aim to make that impact positive.

So after my once a week half hour lessons with these kids, I find myself thinking a lot about what difference I’m actually making in their lives, and what difference I want to make.

The truth is, with 30 minutes a week, these kids are not going to learn to speak or understand Spanish. They might learn a few words, a party trick or two for their parents to show off to their friends. But actual language usage? No way. But I think it can lay a groundwork for further language study or, more likely, an openness to other languages, and hence, other cultures, and other people. This I find exceedingly important in the USA today, especially with Spanish, given the increasingly negative attitude toward Spanish-speaking people in our country, due to misleading political commentary filled with not so subtle racist undertones and overtones.

So maybe in class we learn how to say “adios” and “hermana” and a few kids remember that. That afternoon they’re in the grocery store and they hear those words, which enter their little world because they dug out a space that afternoon in my class. Consequently, they turn their blond-haired head and see a little Mexican girl going out the door, saying goodbye to her sister. This grabs their attention. They continue to stare, as the sister keeps talking in Spanish to her “PaPA.” They don’t understand anything else that is said, but they begin to understand, in a way they couldn’t possibly articulate yet, about other languages, other countries, other cultures. Their little worlds get a little bit bigger. They continue to grow and always for some reason have an interest in Latin American Studies and International Relations. They develop an uncanny ability to bring the cultures together and break racial barriers. They come up with an incredible plan to solve immigration issues in which Mexico and the USA co-exist in partnership, where both countries are economically sound and socially decent. They win the Nobel Peace Prize.

OK, I guess I’m getting ahead of myself. But hey, you never know.

Or maybe their Dad walks in the door that evening and they yell “Potato!!” as they run over to give him a hug, making the whole family laugh uncontrollably and diffusing tension left over from a morning argument.

That would be pretty great too.