Monday, February 14, 2011

Blog #4

Over the past few weeks I have really enjoyed spending my time at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. The building is filled with hope and ambition for the underprivileged children who are there to learn. My job, at the High School is to help students become better writers in the writing workshops. I work with two students individually in the computer lab and help them to form writing skills that they were never taught in the other school they attended. The first girl that I work with is named Malika. She has not been educated to the extent of her other classmates and therefore needs my help. In her writing, I see that she is trying to do write the way she speaks. Since she speaks in broken and abbreviated English, her writing reflects this. She has many good ideas which I have seen her try to put down on paper. However, the grammar and punctuation is almost nonexistent in her work so I have to coach her most of the way. It is a struggle but I do enjoy seeing her improve; it brings a smile to her face and mine. The other girl that I work with is Yasmine. Yasmine is a transfer student from the Dominican Republic. As a freshman, she could barely speak a word of English. Now, as a junior, she is almost fluent in our language. She is a very bright student and it reflects in her hard work ethic. She works hard to try and form sentences that are perfect and for the most part all I have to do is inspire her thoughts; she writes all the rest. My time with these girls has shown me the meaning of God in all things. Much like the speaker in the Hopkins poem God’s Grandeur sees the presence of God, I see it in my work with these girls. Like the speaker, I too wonder how other people do not see the presence of God in our world. If you spent a second with these kids that I tutor, it would be enough to convince anyone that God exists. It just fills your heart with happiness when you see the kids succeed because you know that you helped them to achieve what they couldn’t on their own. Like the animals do in Hirschfield’s poem Happiness, I have casted myself on the good mercy of these people at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, and they have shown me what it is to live. I have placed my faith in them and they haven’t let me down. I want to thank them just as much as they want to thank me. Much like in O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find, I believe that I have found God like the grandmother. Even though I was not faced with a life or death situation like the grandmother, I was forced with a decision to go and serve in the city of Baltimore. Through this decision, I found the children at Cristo Rey. The story drives home the point that most people will never see God's love unless they are face to face with it. I am face to face with it every Thursday morning at Cristo Rey. However, the grandmother was only face to face with it at the point right before her death.

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