Matthew Smith
October 30th, 2013
Show Me The Way
Everyone
needs someone they look up to, someone to guide and assist them through not
only the good times, but also the bad.
This need is even more prevalent in the early stages of childhood, where
being taught right from wrong can shape the kind of person we grow up to
be. In the literary works “Directions
for Resisting the SAT” by Richard Hague, “First Practice” by Gary Gildner, and
“Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes, the authors all give advice and guidance
to those who need it. Hague’s poem is a
satirical attempt to downplay what most high school students consider the test
that will determine their future.
Additionally “First Practice” tells the story of a new, hardcore
athletic coach taking over his new team.
Finally, in his short story Langston Hughes shows us that everyone
deserves simple acts of kindness, and a chance to turn their lives around. These themes of guidance and leadership are
really the essence of what it means to perform community service.
At
first read “Directions for Resisting the SAT” may seem as if it is telling kids
to simply not take, or just not study for the SAT. This however would not be great advice to
follow, and isn’t what the message of the poem is. Instead, Hague is making sure that people
realize, while the SAT is important, it is not the most important thing in
someone’s life. So much pressure is put
on students to do well this test it can drive one crazy, when instead they
should be focused on the rest of their life.
Hague gives us a couple pieces of advice in this poem, first he tells us
to “Desire to live whole.” By this he is
telling us to not just focus on one thing, but to instead be an overall good
person and live an all around fulfilling life.
This is very similar to the Jesuit ideal of teaching all aspects of
education, which we learn about all the time here at Loyola. Secondly, we are told to “Make your marks on
everything”, which has some connection to the SAT through use of the word marks,
but goes much deeper. If some people
worked as hard in life as they do on focusing on their SAT scores, they could
be much more successful. It is by
working our best at everything we do that we are able to leave our mark on
it.
“First
Practice” gives us a different sort of advice, this time from the point of view
of a sports coach. It often happens that
different people in our lives help to shape us in different ways; teachers help
us academically while coaches tend to help us in leadership and teamwork. While we can only assume these kids are on
some sort of school sports team, the coach immediately refers to them as “men”
not children or boys. “Men who hate to
lose as much as I do,” he tells them, using his military background to inspire
his team. Coaches often have a way of
keeping order in young men; through the strict discipline they implement
everyday in practice. It is discipline
like this that guides kids to make the right choice in every aspect of
life. This is why it is important to
have several people and sources of guidance, because there are so many aspects
to life that one person simply cant teach them all.
Finally,
Langston Hughes tells the story of a remarkable woman in “Thank You, M’am”. Most people who catch a young man stealing
their belongings would report them to the police; Mrs. Luella however does just
about the exact opposite. She can
clearly see that this young man is troubled, as he has no one at home to feed
him or tell him to wash up. Without any
sort of authority figure, someone to look up to, all this young man can think
of to do is steal what he needs. Instead
of getting him in trouble, Luella does something far more proactive by taking
him home, letting him wash up, feeding him, and actually giving him the money
he tried to steal. She shows him
compassion, and becomes the figure in his life he never had but so desperately
needed. Right and wrong is not always
obvious to everyone, and the best way to teach people the difference is to show
them. While discipline has its place,
people learn better from those whom they feel like and respect them. By acting in a way no one expected, it really
helps to show the moral that anyone can do something to help a person in need.
All
this relates perfectly to what it means to do community service, especially for
children. While I hope most of the kids
have someone in their lives they look to for advice, some may not. Either way though I try to be that someone
who can offer these kids guidance, as you can never have enough people to seek
advice from. Every day I hope each kid
learns a simple lesson from the work we do with them, such as following
directions, learning to play with others, and basic values of teamwork. It is my job to reinforce these simple ideas
with them, just as Mrs. Luella did, that they will hopefully remember for years
to come. Friday was obstacle course day,
in which we built an amazing course any young child would love to run and jump
through. Guidance was very important in
this exercise, as the kids had never done this activity before and needed to
learn each step. The best part was that
their teacher got to stay and help, which is not normal, and along with Mr.
Schaffer the three of us all had our own advice and inputs we were able to
teach. While it may not seem like much, my gym
teachers are some of the teachers I remember the most. Enjoyment is key in learning, and since gym
is one of the most enjoyable classes for young kids I believe you can connect
and teach in an entirely different way.
It’s these small acts of kindness and guidance, like telling a young man
to wash his face, that can impact people the most.
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