Junior Learners is such a joyful place to be. It is clear, even in just a few hours, that
both the kids and teachers are happy to be there. When it's time for P.E. in the nearby field,
everyone plays - the teachers and students together. It's awesome to see.
The students here are bright, interested, respectful individuals. I am impressed with the level of scholarship
that is achieved given the available resources.
They put me to shame when I attempted to review with them for final
exams. Not only that but they are eager
to learn and ready to ask the tough questions.
They have critical thinking skills and want their instructors to help
put them to good use. The students took
every opportunity we gave them to soak up whatever knowledge and expertise we
could share with them.
It is obvious that the students here have been taught with love and
respect. You can see it in the way they
interact. They have excellent manners. They understand how to share, listen, have
patience and just generally respect each other.
They also have a great capacity for gratitude. We brought equipment for P.E. on our first
day and all of the kids were overjoyed, just to have a tennis ball or a
skipping rope to play with for 30 minutes.
An announcement of pencils for the class was met with raucous
applause. You would have thought I'd
just announced that they'd won an Oscar.
And yet, their gratitude doesn't spill into greed. The children are grateful for what they are
given and don’t expect anything more.
Case in point, on our final day we took them on a field trip to Haller Park, which
basically amounts to a very large, sprawling zoo set in the forest. At the end we passed out a snack for the
kids. The students were excellent about making
sure that everyone got their snack and only their snack, without any hiding or
hoarding. There was an utter absence of
greediness. I have seen groups of kids
who have everything, that would milk the situation for everything they could
get. And yet, these kids, who have so
little, were not trying to get as much as they could, even though they probably
needed it. There was a very inherent
graciousness and generosity in their behavior.
I am grateful to the Junior Learners for allowing us into their
school. Just being with them has
reminded me of what is really important in life and how lucky I am, a lesson
which is particularly pertinent during this season of friends, family and
rampant consumerism. Despite every advertiser’s
best efforts to persuade me to the contrary, more isn’t what matters. Most of my life is a luxury. And now that that’s out of the way, I can go
about the business of appreciating the things I have and, more importantly, the
people, the wonderful wonderful people, that surround me.
