Children HELPING Children

Today I accompanied my high school juniors and seniors to a local school that exists primarily for  underprivileged and/or transient students. It is an elementary school in the heart of Tempe. Community Outreach is mandatory for the students at my school, and I think that is a beautiful and meaningful requirement. Their task today was to assist various third graders in completing a reading assignment, a word search and to color a Mexican Independence Day worksheet. 

While my students were being paired up with the youngsters I observed the following:

Angels with glitter in their hair.

A boy pounding another on the wrist, while the victim remained silent and appeared bored.

My principal telling the teacher about the pounding and my students calling him a tattle tale.

One boy's attention continuously drifting from his reading to gaze at a book on a high shelf. The title of the book was Lawn Care for Busy People; there was a living grasshopper on its spine. 

One student wiggling a loose tooth with his tongue while concentrating

A female toddler child, belonging to a couple enrolling their older son-- she was wearing tiny pink Chuck Taylors and would scream then giggle. Repeatedly.

The smiles of typically angst-filled teenagers as they left the building with fewer answers ready to leap off their tongues, and a new perception of the Universe.