Just a head's up: This post is a little more opinionated. They will not all be like this, but I think I just needed to vent about a few things first before I could accept that this new volunteering experience is just going to be this way.
Hello everyone! I'm finally back volunteering at PSP and I am excited to start my new adventure. However, I have already experienced major differences and I can tell that this is going to be a HUGE challenge. Last Tuesday was my first volunteering day. I am sad to report that I no longer am working with the infants and toddlers because my schedule does not match up with their daycare hours anymore. So about a month ago, I emailed the volunteer director and asked where I could be placed next. Since the only time of the day that I am available to work is the evenings, I got placed in an after-school evening program for 5-12 year olds and finally started last week. The jump from ages 0-3 to 5-12 is such a massive leap emotionally, physically, and intellectually that I mostly tried to just observe on my first day because I was so incredibly overwhelmed.
I got to the shelter around 5:30pm and I started talking to one of the women who worked there. She introduced me to the other 5 instructors and gave me some quick tips. One of her big ones was "structure". After being in the room for 5 minutes with the kids, I understood why. I was instructed to start cutting out pictures of garden-food items from magazines while we waited for the kids to show up. She told me that there is two sessions and even though there was no clock in the classroom, I figure that they are each an hour long. The activity that the kids were supposed to work on that day was to make a collage of what they would want in their garden. I think that they have a theme that they follow everyday and that day was healthy food.
The kids arrived probably around 5:45 and they all filed in one by one a few minutes apart. The first thing I noticed was the extreme energy. I thought, sure, it's nighttime. They probably just ate some sugar. All they want to do is run around and talk to everybody. That's totally normal behavior for any 5-12 year old who has some sugar coursing through their veins 5pm at night. As they start arriving, I also notice the lack of discipline. They do not listen to the head teacher's instructions and they could care less about the activity they were supposed to do. Honestly, I do not blame them one iota. They do not have a spot for a garden at the shelter and they eat what is served to them in the cafeteria at PSP. They could choose to eat expensive, healthy garden vegetables (like what the activity is promoting) or they could eat the food that comes to them free at the shelter. PSP's food is probably great because I have learned a little bit about how their food service works and it's an amazing system they have, but I just think it's strange to incorporate the garden theme. Like I said before, the families staying here do not have the space for a garden at PSP, I am not surprised they don't really care about the activity.
Anyways, because the kid's attention was not focused on the activity, they were running around the small room, jumping off of tables, yelling names at each other, throwing things, and hitting each other. I have never experienced such disarray in a classroom before and the lack of instructor-ness the instructors demonstrated was sad. I love PSP and how it helps these people survive this harsh world every single day. It's an amazing organization that is doing tremendous things for anyone involved. However, I was highly disappointed in the lack of authority that the instructors used to keep the classroom from basically, well… imploding.
Talking too softly and sweetly to them when scolding is not going to help them know that they need to behave when working on activities. Even though they might not be interested in what we are learning. They were basically just saying, "No." and hoping they wouldn't jump from a table again or pull their friend's hair. I do not have all of the answers as to how this situation could be improved, but hopefully as I volunteer here longer I can maybe understand and eventually accept the methods these instructors use. Maybe in the long run these approaches work despite the fact that the short term is so damaging to the kids (in my opinion). I do not really know how to feel at this time, but learning how to help these kids will be a good thing for me. I want to help them, but I just do not know how yet.
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