Volunteering & Volunteer Students

As some of you may already now, I volunteer with the Beautiful People, an organisation which befriends teenage girls whose circumstances are difficult or complicated.

Every Wednesday evening, I pop by A&G Home at Telok Kurau after dinner to spend some time with the girls living there. Sometimes I just sit down and talk to them. Sometimes we play Taboo or Bingo, and last week we celebrated birthdays and I played basketball with them.

Some of them deserve your attention, some don't. It's the same in school. I find myself running out of patience sometimes. But ironically I think it's always the incorrigible ones who are most in need of urgent help.

Through my everyday work and weekly interactions with the girls, I find it an uphill struggle trying to get through to these teenagers. Trying not to lose them to negative influences. Trying to get them to respect you as well as treat you as a friend. Trying to be firm and yet knowing when to let your hair down.

You've got to get creative, honestly, because preaching ain't gonna work. During the holidays, I went to hear Adam Khoo talk and also caught Coach Carter on DVD, which truly inspired me to think of a few new ways to communicate to my students so they would listen.

I am sure any secondary school teachers who get the NT classes would agree with me, that most of the time we are busy discliplining, maintaining order and keeping interest, rather than teaching.

Yet sometimes I stop and I ask myself. Would I be happier, if I had gone to a college with good students who were all eager to learn and super-duper well-behaved? Would I still have such a difficult time in class?

Seriously, my heart sank when I knew I was again going to teach the class with the touchy-feely couple when term starts next week. You may recall me mentioning the touchy-feeling couple in my previous entry.

They peppered my lesson with wet kisses and overly-affectionate gestures. At that moment, it truly felt like I had accidentally flipped over to the soft porn channel while watching TV with my children at home. Except that in this case, I couldn't switch the bloody TV off, and also wasn't able to cover the eyes of my kids. There were 30 who were watching the show.

Well, the touching/kissing did stop somewhat after I spoke with the couple. But other problems existed. The class was very talkative, distracted and uninterested. In fact, the class and I ended the previous semester on  a negative note as I had lost my temper at them, which resulted in them boycotting my last lesson.

I laid in bed a few nights ago worrying what's gonna happen when I see them next week. But I have since decided to try something drastic to salvage the situation. I refuse to take the easy way out.

Going to school is a real challenge and I'm always cracking my brains over effective teaching/communication methods. But honestly, I thought about it and decided that I am not betting on the fact that I would be happier if I taught better students.

My mum told me this in the car one day after I had a terrible day in school.

"The good students.. They won't be grateful towards you when they leave school. They think they have THEMSELVES to thank. It's always the "bood-seng-suan" ones, the really terrible students, who will appreciate you and remember what you did."

Yes, those who sleep in class, dye their hair golden brown, walk with an awful swagger, and embarrass you with their loud resounding "Ooi Cher!!" when they see you from 100m away, and then flash you a big silly grin.

Are they worth your effort?