Operation Breakthrough

As some of you may know, this summer I devoted my free time to volunteering at Operation Breakthrough. It is somewhat like a daycare for children of low income families. I heard about it through a friend and was able to start once I got back from Guatemala.



The first day I walked in to volunteer it seemed like mass chaos. Kids were screaming, teachers were screaming, and kids were all over the place. I was a wee bit overwhelmed, but I asked where I could help out. I wanted to work with the older kids, but again I was put with the first graders (I think this may be a sign that I am just not meant to work with the upper grades. ha!) All the kids were absolutely adorable. Half of them wanted to braid my hair, while the other half wanted to teach me new hand cheers.

As the days that I volunteered went on, I really grew to love those kids. They eventually knew my name and were excited to see me when I came...which is always a good feeling. However, as much fun as I had with the kids there was so much that still bothered me deep down. Much of the time kids were beating up on each other, throwing punches whenever they could. Needless to say my discipline skills were strengthened during this experience. But still it was just awful to see these little 6 year olds getting mad over the littlest things. You could tell that some of the would fight just to fight. It was so difficult to manage the kids because the classroom teacher would yell and scream, the kid would sit out for five minutes and be back at it again. I think that what the organization is doing is wonderful, but they need so much more structure and discipline to the program.

A lot of the time it just seemed like the adults didn't want to be there. It was so disheartening for these kids because more than anything they need positive role models in their lives and it was hard.

There was one incident where I was completely blown away. There was a little boy with a patch over his eye. I stayed somewhat close to him because I had heard his peers teasing him and I was in no way going to allow such behavior. As the day progressed the kids did their own things and the young boy got on a chair to look over into the other classroom, something almost every kid has done. One of the teachers yelled at the boy telling him that that was the reason that he only had one eye. I could not believe what I had just heard. I honestly tried to speak but I was just frozen in shock. Not only was this poor boy being teased because he was a minority, but he also was missing an eye which led to even more teasing.

The day of this event happened to be my last day of volunteering. While I truly did enjoy my times with the kids I learn so much about being an adult figure in a child's life. The need some stability and warmth from adults that they look up to, and I was disappointed that more people don't understand that.

I have to say that this experience only motivates me more to work in an inner-city school. I by no means know a whole lot about teaching yet, and I know that it will take years of practice, but what I do know is that I really care about kids and helping them succeed. In order to do that I am willing to give my time, emotion, and energy to making that happen. I can't wait... :)