Learning

Yesterday I went early to the elementary school where I was subbing. I was filling in for a kindergarten teacher. I actually like subbing for elementary teachers - you get to be there all day with the kids and actually try to teach them something. In high school, you are usually handing them busy work for an hour and then they are out the door.

The school was in a Hispanic part of town, so I didn't think anything about the English and Spanish words covering the walls. I was quite stunned, though, when the teacher's directions were for me to work with the students using the Spanish language books. I don't speak Spanish (other than "si" and "no", kind of like saying I know Japanese because I can say "karate").

To keep it short, I had a good day. I told the kids they were going to have to help me and they did. I tried reading through the kids book using Spanish, and they had great fun yelling out the correct pronunciation when I would miss one or two a page. There was no doubt that I learned far more Spanish yesterday than I taught them English.

It is true: you can learn from anyone if you want to. Those very young students were great teachers.