This week at Newcomer started out a little rough and was even more eye-opening to the issues surrounding the Indianapolis community. Each week that I have been here has been a very positive experience and has really opened my eyes to how open these children are to learning. Today, the classes were a little older and many of the students were rebellious. It was very hard for the teacher to control his class while he was teaching. Students were yawning very loudly every time he spoke and were calling him names in different languages. These students were all at around the late middle school/early high school age so their rebellion wasn’t that surprising. The most surprising part of the day was when the teacher pulled me aside and told me to keep an eye out for two boys who almost got in a fight last week. As he was explaining the situation to me, I noticed the boys already making vulgar hand signs at each other. I’m assuming these signs were learned in the environment that they live in outside of the school and this made me reflect on a few things that I learned in the BCR that I attended 2 weeks ago on Muslim Work with Ex-Offenders. I think that this situation is very similar to the environment that Mr. Blackwell described many of the people at the IMAN institute experience. I realized that these boys probably don’t have much of an example of a different environment and their actions are literally a reflection of the areas surrounding them. They are so young and are so easily influenced by the people around them. I worked with one of the boys to keep him occupied and to remove him from the situation for the rest of the class and all of a sudden his attitude changed and he became invested and interested in the schoolwork that we were doing. This showed me how important it is to invest time and understanding into a person especially a young student like this boy. This attitude is also what the IMAN institute highlighted as its mission.
I think that this situation brings to life the issues that were touched on by the keynote speakers at the BCR. The biggest point that resonated with this situation is that sometimes children growing up in these environments aren’t even given a first chance at figuring out the life that they would like to lead. I think that the students at Newcomer are very vulnerable… they have just arrived to the United States, they don’t speak much English, and they are searching for a community that they belong in. I think that Newcomer is a great program and first step to showing these kids more opportunities and also showing them that there are teachers and volunteers who invest in them and care about their success and that this is their community. The positive empowerment that a program like Newcomer provides can truly impact a developing child and it has taught me a lot about how to see the potential in someone and how to help them realize their potential through positive reinforcement and support.