I entered EWB in September, 2017, not long after entering my high school. The acceptance email was a big surprise. Later I discovered that it was even more surprising that I didn’t have to suffer the miserable time on the waitlist.
No matter what, the unexpected journey began suddenly in October. I tried to figure out a defining moment, a moment I could show off at any time in my life. Then I failed. Instead of a defining moment, I found details, too many of them, that I could never ever expect in anywhere else. They have a tag “EWB” along with the memory.
I’m so lucky that I can share the stories, and here they are.
“Education”
/ˌedʒ.əˈkeɪ.ʃən/ noun, the process of teaching or learning, especially in a school or college, or the knowledge that you get from this. (Cambridge Dictionary)
e.g. Education is why so many miracles could happen within a year, and it is mutual.
“Hey, how do you do?” I grinned as I saw the little boy’s face appeared on the screen. This is just a normal Wednesday evening in the first semester. In that haunted math classroom, I spent some of the most unforgettable nights.
It may sound like a cliché that men can learn while teaching others. Yet it’s true. Methods to get along well with the little child are big things, while sharing the ‘life’ is the best gift ever. In a school offering the renowned most challenging high school courses, complaints are not something scarce when the colorful deadlines fill up the dashboard. I had to admit that the little boy taught me to cherish everything I “suffered” in school with his own experience – my teachers were so annoying and they marked our homework zero if it passed the deadlines.
I interviewed a primary school teacher about how students in primary school master the math knowledge before beginning the tutorial, and the answer I got was to memorize, in other words, recite. “My colleague’s tag was ‘Remember this everyone!’ and struck the blackboard with his fist at the same time,” she replied with laughter. “But how?” I asked myself, and there was no answer. Well, it’s my fault, I shouldn’t “recite” all the things in advance. Because of this, I hardly ever found math in primary school difficult. My own primary school teachers are not necessary to me as I never paid much attention to them.
I started to read essays on the different methods of teaching with the purpose of making up for my distraction in the primary school. By doing this, I figured out some of the tricks of my own teachers, and “borrowed” without an IOU. Of course, I got a salary. Sometimes I flashed back to my old golden days when I sought to read the little boy’s mind.
This is the most important course I’ve ever taken, much more remarkable than those in my renowned middle school.
“Without”
/wɪˈðaʊt/, preposition or adverb, not having or doing something, or lacking something. (Cambridge Dictionary)
e.g. There are things I would never experience without EWB
I
“Twelve o’clock,” said the alarm icily, and it was the first time I entered a Sunday consciously with excitement - I realized this suddenly while stretching my 16-year-old legs and keeping my head stuck to where it was on the screen, at least attempting. It was the first HR department weekly meeting I attended, and it surprised me by showing me directly how various problems under all circumstances were solved effectively.
A question was raised, then a solution, then an evaluation, then an adjustment, and so on. Well, it’s neither a very special online meeting which connected people living in more than three time zones, nor a very special backup team for the direction of the whole organization. I’ve never heard of it when I was still only a five grader’s Math teacher preparing one class per week and found myself a little stressed out once when the midterm came and I found there were ten of them… (That was nothing comparing to this important meeting!)
What I found that really surprised me was not something new, but something unfamiliar to me - the passion and the humanistic concern, for the children and volunteers, also for the EWB family. I’ve learnt the words before, but had never come so close to them.
II
“Are you willing to be a temporary teaching assistant (consecutive interpreter) and supervise the English class as well this evening?” the volunteer in charge of the teaching quality supervising team queried. I said yes, and it was the most significant evening I’ve ever had on the last day of the finals.
Honestly, I couldn’t understand the teacher’s words very well at the beginning because he talked supper fast. At this point, I was still nervous and was doubting about whether this class could go on smoothly – the child was in grade one and I knew she was not really good at English. “Hai Xi, zao shang hao! (Good morning, Hai Xi)” this kind native American greeted nicely when the child entered the zoom link. “Alright, many foreigners know well about some of the Chinese sentences. This happens in my school as well…” I thought when the conversation went on and waited for the opportunities to work, and 10 minutes passed. Wait… I had only said a few words and this situation continued for nearly the whole class. I nearly believed that it was unnecessary for me to be a temporary interpreter.
The evening was still significant. I suggested in the report that it was necessary to find out what the foreign teachers could do that was different from the original English teachers. They found this a great question, and brought up a wonderful plan to address the issue. Yet they never knew it came into my mind when I was suffering - smiling embarrassingly to the exhausted child, saying nothing while doing nothing, and looking forward to the movies I decided to watch as a reward of the finals.
“Barriers”
/ˈber.i.ɚ/, noun, a long pole, fence, wall, or natural feature, such as a mountain or sea, that stops people from going somewhere. (Cambridge Dictionary)
e.g. Barriers are unavoidable, from the access of education to the communication
Apparently, my new student was not as passionate as I was during class. He gradually started to open his mouth wide and yawn while I was talking about my favorite methods to get the common dominators of different fractions. The light of the phone appeared on his face as soon as I instructed him to simplify 2/6, and the answer I got was 0.333... ‘Well...Correct!’ My lips trembled. ‘Calm down, Anita!’ I told myself as I heard the casual remark just like having the afternoon tea.
Still, the feeling of heart-rending was unavoidable. Before entering EWB, I expected the worst condition to be teaching a boy as energetic as my neighbor’s - yelling, jumping, feet moving all the time. At least, there would be responses to me, and whether they’re related to the class or not does not matter. “Wait...How can they be so different?”
(One thousand words are omitted here due to the limitation of the words account.)
Little things began to change. I could figure this out from the eyes of the little boy. The progress was not easy, to be honest, even harder than learning calculus myself. The addition and subtraction of fractions were replaced by the plus and minus among the natural numbers. I pulled out my textbook of grade one in a box covered with ashes, and soon found myself not only a teacher on Wednesday evening, also a learner exploring the paths to another sensitive and stubborn sole. Plans, meetings, recruiting new teachers, and additional “deep conversations” are scheduled throughout the whole holiday.
We waited for miracles to happen. I started to read essays again, this time on history of the simple theorems, ways of dealing with distractions and note taking skills. That paid off every Wednesday as I no longer needed to worry about his wandering mind thousands of miles away from math.
You really need to be energetic and gave off heat to warm another breaking heart. I learnt to be that person to shine.
Summary
I can’t tell what’s the biggest thing of being a member of EWB, whether it’s the experience of being a mentor, or contributing a little to make sure the whole system going on well. That was not what we aimed to show.
Reference
Anita’s memory after submitting the application for EWB.
“Cambridge dictionary”, Cambridge University Press,
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/education, Accessed 1st March.