Welcome, Ven a gozar!

Getting things done is almost impossible at times. Not the Getting Things Done people use as a self management system, but creating any kind of real change at any level, be it school, work, or home. No matter how big your sphere of influence, you rarely have enough influence to change anything that really makes a difference if it involves any sort of organized group.

For example, I was a computer tutor volunteer at one time for a specialized community center. I had six to eight ’students’ who would show up weekly for a two hour class. Most of them held job positions in their group, but knew little to nothing about computers except whatever their job was. So as the appointed volunteer in charge, it was my job to help them become computer literate. A simple task should not be difficult one would think?

I developed a schedule, and a training matrix of sorts, that would help them learn their way around Windows and eventually Office programs, but it was flexible enough that there was room to go over past lessons, and incorporate them into new learning. That is about the best any instructor can hope for. The classes went well for three or four sessions. Then the Director of Education for the group, decided that there should be some sort of testing at the end of each session so the progress of the folks in attendance could be evaluated. Would I mind making a simple test for each module completed?

A week after that the attendees were being referred to as students. As students, as long as I was now instructing them on using notepad and wordpad, couldn’t I add a little grammar instruction to my lessons? After all they were working with jokes and stories, and they were only practicing cutting and pasting to make the stories make sense, a little grammar should be easy enough to add.

The next week I was called into the Director of Education’s office. What nerve I had using that kind of language in this environment! I had to claim ignorance, as I was unaware of what sort of language I had used that was so offensive. I was handed a print out, with a highlighted word on it. It had been a joke that was to be cut and pasted until it made sense. Among the twelve or so lines of text, the word ‘crap’ was highlighted. I had to claim ignorance, as I did not know how such a highly offensive word could have possibly worked its way in a joke and exposed to a class of adults.

The next week, I had another meeting with the Director of Education. Wouldn’t it be possible, as long as people were showing up for class that I could take half the class time for formal instruction on English grammar, spelling, and basic math? I had to draw the line here for a couple of reasons. In the first place, the ’students’ were writing on a low elementary school level, and needed more instruction than I could provide. Secondly, I knew little about formal grammar myself, although my math was okay. I was over ruled and given a grammar book to make grammar lesson plans from.

There are miracles in the world, and I was lucky enough to experience one of them. I told the ’students’ that next week we would be doing half the session on formal grammar, and math. The next week I was an instructor in an empty room. The next week was exactly the same, empty. I went to the Director of Education and explained I had no students. I was told it was okay, if they wanted to learn to use a computer they were going to learn English and math also. After two more weeks, I resigned as computer instructor, English, spelling, and math teacher.

I thought this was a great example of trying to make a positive change gone wrong. Both the Director of Education, and I wanted to make a difference. The people who showed up for instruction had a willingness to learn to a point. Given enough time, they would have learned basic grammar, and spelling skills, and perhaps some basic math as their computer skills improved and they started exploring the internet. As it turned out, now computers are something other people use, and they have little use for.

At times we are like the Director of Education. We have the best intentions but we stifle any possibility of change before it even has a chance to start. Usually it is because of we do not do, but more often it is due to what we say, or do, because we try too hard and push people away. I think as people, we do not mind being slowly led, but we do not care much to be directed.

Comments (0) Jan 14 2008