In-School Mentoring and Obliviousness
Posted in Miscellaneous on March 15th 2005 by Randy Reichardt:: I am a volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters Edmonton & Area. There are different mentoring opportunities available to volunteers. Last year, I began as a Digital Hero – it’s like being a digital pen pal. The student and I e-mail back and forth through a monitored web site. The student asks me questions, and I try to help, and we get to know each other. Today I began another program called In-School Mentoring. I was assigned to a boy in Grade 6 at the Academy at King Edward. The school is in a beautiful old building that was built in 1913, and is a historic site in the city. The use of the word “Academy” to describe it is appropriate.
I met the student, Scott, today with the BBBS caseworker, and we discussed interests, activities he likes doing, and so forth. I will meet with him for 40 minutes once a week, over lunch hour. I learned very quickly some of his interests, including mechanics and electronics, robots, music, sk8boarding, and puzzles. He also told me he likes classic rock (Pink Floyd!) and SNL, so we hit it off quickly. We plan to play Scrabble next week.
I’ve not done this kind of volunteering before, but felt comfortable today. The meeting place will be the library, which is cool, given that I’m a librarian. I spoke with the library technician, and promised to compare notes at a later date!
:: Today while driving home from work, I heard a siren. An ambulance was approaching, so I pulled over with another vehicle, into a left-hand turning lane. As the ambulance passed, we began to move back into the lane, only to notice an idiot barreling up the same lane at high speed. He had chosen to use the ambulance as a wedge to clear other vehicles out of his way. He almost clipped my car as he sped by me.
It’s another example of a disturbing trend, what I like to call obliviousness. I’m not sure this idiot even knew what he was doing. Another example is when someone bumps into you while they are talking on their cell phone, unaware that other sentient beings are sharing the same space as they are as they walk and talk.
:: In the spirit of Christmas Letters Past, I’d like to report that today, I bought some pants.
