Today began with a diversity panel of an African-American man, an Arab man, a Jewish man, a Hispanic man and an Asian-American woman. They spoke to us about cultural misconceptions, cultural history and the importance of respecting the cultures of others. They taught us that educating ourselves about cultures different from our own is the first step in uniting people. We also watched a video about the history of Detroit that taught us about how the first people to come to Detroit were French immigrants in 1701. Many years later, after the innovation of the assembly line by Henry Ford, Detroit became the place where everyone came looking for work. People who found work in automotive plants were automatically placed in the middle class and lived the ‘American Dream’ by putting themselves in a position to make a better life for their children. We then broke off into groups and my group traveled to Marcus Garvey Academy School to tutor children. I volunteered to tutor children with special needs and had a great time. I worked with a teacher named Mrs. Newberry that has been teaching for 32 years. The children were around 8/9 years old and two of them wore helmets when they entered the classroom; one used a walker. I ended up tutoring a girl with her math work. We went over subtraction problems and I helped her by using a number line and subtracting fingers. As she got used to my teaching style she eventually said, “I’m so smart,” after having solved many questions correct in a row. This made me feel very good because she was having trouble in the beginning but as we kept going she became more comfortable and confident. At one point she even said, “This is so easy,” and that just made my day. She had problems writing so the teacher allowed the student to tell me her answers and I write them down. At the end of the school day, Mrs. Newberry allowed me to host a game of Bingo to the students. It was a lot of fun because I had them pull the numbers and say them out loud to reinforce their learning. I plan to do a lot more tutoring in the future.
