prompt #5 Martin's Mom

Today, 11/8/10, at the Down City Center I had the opportunity to work with Martin again. I asked Rob to call his mom and see if she wanted to come in at 5 so she could see a project Martin and I were working on. Rob called and Martin's mother decided to come in. Martin and I were making a powerpoint presentation on The Crucible. Martin was much nicer today but a little weird because he knew his mom was coming. I was nervous because I wasn't sure about her background. I was afraid she might misunderstand me and because I don't speak Spanish, I would have no way to clarify. The meeting went much better than I had hoped. Martin's mom spoke English well because she works in the school cafeteria. We talked about the project her son had and how he had to research characters and find quotes that explained how each character propelled the main themes in the story. She told me that she is not comfortable with computers and she is glad he can do work at tutoring because at home the computer is too distracting. "Martin starts to work and then ends up listening to music or talking to friends" she said. I told her that lately students in college are being permitted to listen to music during tests because it helps then collect their thoughts more effectively and that what my generation finds distracting, her son's may find necessary. Either way we talked while Martin worked and we were not distracting. She asked me if there were things I felt Martin needed extra help with and I told her that Martin knows the answers but I think he is afraid to really get engaged. Martin is popular and it looks un-cool to do school work. I told her that tutoring is a great way to give him access to a range of help not just academic but social because the center is a comfortable place just to talk about learning. She said she would like to see him get a job because than he would understand why he has to go to college. Real life is tough she said. She only stayed for half an hour during which Martin was perfectly behaved. I think this proves that forming relationships with parents really strengthens our ability to help the child. There is no way Martin does not have exposure to enough English to write out his own assignments. I learned that from meeting his mom Also I think having an opportunity to talk to the parent positively about their child gives them reason to get more engaged. Even with a slight language barrier we did very well. The job comment was hard because I think we should teach our children to learn for learning's sake but I can see why jobs are very important to most parents.  Kozol says "Childhood is not merely basic training for utilitarian adulthood. It should have some claims upon our mercy, not for its future value to the economic interests of competitive societies but for its present value as a perishable piece of life itself."