Something About Those First Graders!

I do not really remember learning how to read. Someone must have taught me, right?  But I have no recollection of the process.  I do remember sounding out words by syllables, but not by each letter’s sound, which I must have already known. I definitely never forgot the long vowels sounds: a e i o u. But those short vowel sounds are still kind of hazy. Upper case, lower case, telling time, counting, naming the months of the year?  I don’t remember when or how or who taught me all that.

Yes, I had parents and an older brother and I went to kindergarten and then first grade and so on. At home, the only story book I remember was “Black Beauty,” about a horse of that name. Obviously, my mother must have read to me in those days before TV and social media. And my grandma had a few familiar rocking chair lullaby songs. They were familiar because she sang them to me and to generations of her grandchildren and great grandchildren!

  My point is simply that I have pretty much no recollection of my  learning process for some of these basic things, and now that I am tutoring first graders (mostly boys so far) in an after school reading program, I am consciously learning right along with them. My experience of and with little kids is almost nil, so I am being challenged, but also having a fabulously fun time of it!

 I do not doubt that these days, many first-graders know more or less (or maybe a whole lot more)  than their ABC’s.  But I do want to say that I count myself exceptionally lucky every minute I spend with these kids. They wiggle, they run, they giggle, they interrupt, they spin on the chairs, they surprise, they play, and they notice stuff.  When I get unexpected clues about what their minds have processed, I count that a special treat. And I learn to not underestimate their grasp of things or their potential.  Even when pressed, these little boys usually have no idea what they want to be when they grow up. But when pressed, one boy declared he wanted to make pizzas, and that led into a whole new discussion. Another beat me (often) at game of “Hangman” with words: Lamborghini, bug, and think. (He was a third grader!)

So, I have to say: there’s something about those first graders, something amazing and extremely precious: they are without guile. As grown ups, I pray that their every potential will be fully realized with only microscopic loss of innocence. Probably nothing else will matter very much.

[Thankful for Alex, Salvador, Julian, Ismael, Selvin, Alejandro,  Kayler, and Krystal.]