A Free Tutoring Service: Preparing For the Future
Tuesday, September 24, 2002 Lesson Review B- 34
It is not our intention: A lesson in Parenting.... Counseling Parents and Students!
It is not our intention to abandon any student just because he or she has taken a "nose-dive". It is not our intention to kick teens when they are down, because all of us have fallen from Grace at one time or the other. It is not our intention to stand idly by and watch those teens sink further into the depths of depression and despair, and that is why we act immediately to remedy the situation. It is not our intention to allow any teen to fail in school, let alone one or two of our prized "A" students.
I visited "Mrs. S", a single mother to one of our students. The mother is hard working and has done all she can to bring her daughter up in the proper environment, nurture her and take care of her educational needs. The mother enrolled her daughter into our Free Tutoring Service nearly 3 years ago. The mother has worked very hard at raising her two children, but has faced many obstacles along the way. One of the obstacles she has faced has everything to do with "environment". Environment plays a vital role in the development of any student and our student in A Free Tutoring Service, is just like any other teen who sometimes fall victim to their environment. It is for us to remained focused in providing a "positive environment" to counteract those negative forces that are always present in the lives of our youth.
Mrs. S. spoke to me for nearly one and one half hours about how her teen had been incarcerated and how many attempts she had made to correct her bad behavior. Because of bad influences in her environment, this teen had fallen from Grace. This teen was one of our very own prized "A" students. She was an aspiring Doctor, and she was a beautiful and personable young lady. She is still a beautiful and personable young lady. It is hard to imagine that such a gifted young lady could fall victim to a bad environment, but she did.
I will do my utmost to visit the court case when it comes due next week. I will do all that I can to persuade our "fallen" young lady to return to our Free Tutoring Service because we provide a positive environment for our teens. It is a life style that sees all of them in Church, sees all of them having fun in learning, sees all of them on their way to becoming successes in life and sees each and every one of them determined not to fall victim to their negative environments. We commit ourselves to our students, no matter how long they have been out of our Tutoring Program, because we simply do not know how to give up on them. Our young lady will return to this environment. We have prayed on it and consider that it is already done!
It is not our intention to allow child abuse in any shape or form to befall our students. That abuse could come from a parent, and it could take the form of mental as well as physical. Many parents really should not be parents; that is, until they have taken parenting classes and have found out how to be parents. Parents are sometimes involved in child abuse with regards to their very own and are too ignorant to realize it. They will allow no opinion in a situation because they are, after all, the biological parents and know all there is to know about child rearing. It is not our intention to allow one of our students to fall victim to what we consider "mental or physical" abuse. We are forever vigilant to determine the cause of bad grades in school. We are forever on guard and a red flag is immediately raised when one of our "A" students suddenly changes from an "A" student to an "F" student.
God will reverse the situation with regards to child abuse and the abuser will become the abused! It has happened time and time again and this time is no exception. One of our students fell from Grace because of abuse, but he has been returned to his status of old, and he is once again a proud student with a G.P.A. of over 3.6. God takes care of his own, and punishes those who go against His Will. It is for us to remind everyone, as well as parents, that no weapon raised against God's Children will prosper. Unconditional love, patience, and understanding will bring each and every teen through their teen-years and there is no other way. Love your children, do not abuse them, because Organizations such as this are on guard when "A" grades suddenly fall to "F" grades! This Free Tutoring Service is one of God's Tools to not only teach till we drop but to counsel, mentor and assist teens in passing through these, their most difficult years!
I went to the Crenshaw Mall to visit the Metro Office there. I had given myself a deadline in obtaining student bus passes for 4 of our students. Single mothers must work, and so I, as the Chief Tutor, must fill in as a father-figure and take care of those things that the single mothers have trouble taking care of. I went to the Metro station after I had secured the necessary paperwork from the respective High Schools. I went armed with the tiny photo that I had taken with the digital camera and stapled to the form. I went prepared to once and for all stop those single parents who could ill afford it from paying twice as they should have been paying for bus transportation for their children. Bus pass $20 per month; bus tokens, $50+ per month. I went prepared to turn in those forms to the Metro Office, but I failed because of missing signatures of school officials.
No one told the students that they needed to have the forms signed by the Dean. Someone simply gave the forms to the students with the name of the school stamped in the "school address" section. I was saddened by that fact and so I am writing to let all of the parents know that they should ask some school official who knows something about bus transportation just what should be filled out on the forms before they are simply handed over to the students. The Metro Office (next to Sears) takes special pride in the fact that they have the power to send an individual 20 miles back home when those forms are not properly filled out. I was also told to "make sure that I had $1.00 each for the forms". I frowned on such a remark by the clerk, because I thought I portrayed a successful Black businessman, with my fine jewelry and nice clothes. After all, I am a Jewelry Company owner who prefers to tutor instead of selling 14 K jewelry and diamonds at this time in my life! Non-the-less, I will return again on tomorrow with the forms signed. The parents will save approximately $30 per month on transportation, and God knows, they need it!
Ashley (16) was waiting for me when I returned home at 6:00PM. The day had started at 4:00AM, but I had given my word that I would be available to assist any student, any time. I had scheduled tutoring classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4:00PM to 8:00PM, and on Sundays, from 2:00PM to 8:00PM, but Ashley comes over because she feels she can move ahead by having me help her with Algebra Two on Tuesdays.
Ashley and I did approximately 20 Algebra problems. The problems had to basically do with exponents and their manipulation with regards to addition, multiplication and division. I explained each and every one of the problems and took special time to explain square roots, cube roots and the "fourth root" of some of the numbers on the homework. I had Ashley to remember the perfect squares from 1-12 (1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,100,121,144). We also did the perfect cubes from 1 to 5. This is useful information when breaking down a number to determine if there is a perfect square when it is desired to find a square root. I added another element, Scientific Notation, and worked problems in that regard. We sometimes move ahead of the Instructors when the opportunity presents itself.
I believe Ashley is now ready to Tutor the other students. She is gifted mathematically, and that is one of the reasons that I worked with her for nearly 2 hours, in spite of the very, very tired mind and slowly closing eyelids! God keeps me going.....and I love it!
Attention: Nicole (17) attends Loyola Maramount College now. She will be receiving her $1000 award for winning an art competition. Her winning mural will be unveiled on September 25 at the Grand Central Marketplace in Downtown Los Angeles. The newspapers will be there at 10:00AM to chronicle the accomplishment of our straight "A" student (once a failing student until we intervened), and so will I. Follow the accomplishment of this natural artist and how we brought her to the position she finds herself in today. It all there on this Website, because it is an educational diary of the past 4 years. Nicole was given her first canvas, acrylic paints, brushes and motivated to excel, not only in academics (she moved from failing to straight "A" in one year), but in mind, body and spirit. Nicole will always be one of the students in.....A Free Tutoring Service: Preparing for the Future".
Nicole is a gifted artist who has been accepted at the Otis Art Institute, but her single mother is poor and cannot afford to send her anywhere. Won't someone, somewhere step up to the plate and at least investigate the possibility that this might be another Van Gogh and Dali? Call (310) 635-4536 and ask about Nicole. She is presented on the Home Page of this website.