CHAPTER
12
WHAT AN EXPERIENCE
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” - Dr. Seuss
Dorothy was on to something - “There is no place like home.”
As much as I loved my first year experience at Oakwood, I always felt like a fish out of water. The fact that I was not familiar with a lot of the cultural habits that existed bothered me. During chapel service they sang songs like “Bye and Bye,” “Glory Glory,” “The Blood that Jesus Shed,” “Precious Memories How They Linger” and so forth. For the first few months I lip-singed and pretended I knew the songs. Then there were those spiritual sayings they would repeat throughout chapel. It was like they had their own language. The biggest challenge was the cliques. It seemed like ninety percent of the students went to high school together or they had relatives attending the school. There were only a handful of freshmen from Detroit, and I only knew one or two of them on a first name basis because they went to school with De.
It reminded me of my basketball experience. I never truly embraced the game because I did not excel at it. I excelled in football. As a result, I loved the game of football. When it came to a football game, people went out of their way to make sure I played on their team, but when it was time for basketball they would go to the park and not even tell me they were going. College, for me, was a lot like my basketball experience. In order to get the full benefit of college, my academic game had to be tight or I had to at least be able to sing or play an instrument. Unfortunately, I did not posses any of those skills. I believe that is why I gravitated toward the work environment. I not only survived in that environment, I thrived. I had the work ethic that would allow me to become one of the best.
But after working in the real world for a few months, I knew busing tables was not for me. Bottom line, some birds are not meant to be caged. However, for the time being De and I needed the money so I was in no position to quit. From that day forward I purposed in my heart that I would do what I loved doing and not what I was forced to do to make a living.
CHAPTER
13
Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve - Oakwood College Mantra
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give - Sir Winston Churchill
My community service efforts had grown dramatically, from visiting elementary and middle school students, and the elderly, to the developing and implementing a G.E.D. program. I started the G.E.D. program because I felt I had to do more. The G.E.D. was my ticket out of Detroit and my passport to the world, literally, and I felt as if I had a debt to pay to those who helped me. The program specifically targeted mothers who were unable to finish high school due to unplanned pregnancy, and youth offenders, i.e., drug dealers, and gang members.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
When I started the G.E.D. class I did not have a dime to my name or any financial backing but it all worked out because there were only a few mandatory items I needed to get started. I had to have a G.E.D. book, some pencils and pens, some writing paper, scrap paper and a classroom with a few desks. The book, paper, pencils and pens would be the easy part, finding office space would be somewhat challenging. During my devotional time, I prayed to the Lord and asked for wisdom regarding the class space. A few days later my answer came to me as I was driving down University Ave. All of a sudden it dawned on me that there was a neighborhood community center in the complex. I knew there had to be at least a few classrooms that were not being used. When I made it home I called Black to see if he would roll out with me to the center just in case there were a few classrooms available and to find out what the requirements were to lease the space. As fate would have it there was plenty of available space and based on the type of program I was providing the neighborhood, the director was more than happy to accommodate me. Now that the facility was secure, it was time to check off the other items one by one. I bought my first G.E.D. textbook from Books a Million. I then asked one of my professors for writing paper and the center provided scrap paper and to my surprise they took care of all my printing needs. I had some extra pencils and pens lying around at the house, so I brought those from home. Classes were everyday from 12-4. I wanted to run the classes earlier but I knew it might affect attendance so I encouraged those that needed extra help to meet me earlier or stay after class. I had a gut feeling that this was not going to be your typical group. It was my guess that some of the students would have some mental and emotional challenges they would need to overcome before they ever dealt with their academics struggles. With that in mind, I divided my lesson plan in three segments. Before we did anything we discussed their goals for themselves and my personal goals for the class. The next 10 -15 minutes I read a powerful motivation speech and ended it with an electrical charge that summarized the points of the devotion. I figured I had a better chance of gaining their interest and getting them engaged in the learning experience if I made them feel good about themselves and made them believe that somehow their dreams could come true through hard work. Instead of designing my program with a traditional approach, I added some creative methods. Mainly, I used a team approach. Based on the strength of the students, I assigned each of them a day to teach and I divided my lesson plan with them according to their assigned day. The idea was to keep them as active as possible for the entire class period. I knew it was difficult for a number of them to concentrate on the lesson at hand. For some it was family challenges that kept them from giving me their undivided attention, for others it was the fear that their infants were not in the safest daycare facility. Mothers would repeatedly dismiss themselves from the classroom to call the daycare facility to make sure their child was safe. Had it not been a requirement to pursue their G.E.D. in order to remain on government assistance, there is a chance that many of the mothers would not have enrolled in the program. Then there were my most challenging students. They were either gang bangers or drug dealers who would have also preferred to be elsewhere but were required by the courts to get in a G.E.D. program or return to prison. Regardless of the challenge that prevented them from taking school serious, I felt compelled to find out what learning environment and teaching style most complemented their learning style.