By Louise Mathews
In the two weeks before Christmas, I experienced cognitive dissonance. I have been dismayed by President Trump’s comments following the horrific deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Rob Reiner and the silly action of the Kennedy Center Board of Directors to add Mr. Trump’s name to that national arts center.
Even a journalist for Breitbart, a conservative website, had difficulty defending the President’s mean-spirited remarks by reviewing the slings and arrows that have repeatedly been hurled at Mr. Trump for 10 years. I want my President to be better than those who revile him. Given his age and hubris, I doubt I will see an improvement in his honey badger demeanor.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have spent time with first-grade children. The best thing I have done for myself in 2025 is to volunteer for the United Way of the Lowcountry’s Early Grade Reading Initiative.
spend two hours each week with first-grade children, and I love it. My husband and I do not have grandchildren, and our great nieces and nephews live far away. Since our daughter grew up, contact with children has been in passing at church or in the neighborhood. So, spending time with these young learners is a highlight every week.
These children are fortunate to have an experienced master teacher who mixes life lessons with the drills and skills of early reading and math. Since the current program started in October, I have observed that the children are wiggling less and can stay on task for longer periods of time. They still cannot keep their hands entirely to themselves and often want to turn away from their tables to converse with friends behind them.
One or two seem to thrive on rule-breaking for the attention received. On the whole, though, they are beginning to behave in ways that will help them succeed in and out of the classroom. The children are respectful and kind to one another because kindness and generosity are modeled, encouraged, and rewarded.
During an art project on my last day with them before the holiday break, the teacher placed a new set of colorful markers at each table which meant four children shared a box. Maybe it’s the season, but I saw them work cooperatively without complaint when one didn’t get her preferred color right away.
A challenge the teachers in my suburban, homogenized classrooms never faced is the fact that a sizable part of the children do not hear English spoken at home. While all instruction is in English, use of Spanish must occur. One small girl corrected me when I told another girl that she needed to speak English in the classroom.
“No, Miss Louise, we can speak Spanish here,” the first girl told me.
I realized that she sometimes interprets directions for the other girl. Another insight came when a young boy had difficulty sounding out “th” as in “the.” It is hard to make a sound that a child rarely hears. Sometimes, bilingual children will start telling me something, only to stop with a stricken expression when they cannot find English words to complete their thoughts.
Today’s first graders are not the innocents we boomers were at that age. They are immersed in a world of videos, photos, conversations, and people they know introducing them to experiences we encountered later in life.
At least once each week, a child asks how old I am, which I expect, but one day a child asked me, “Are you gay?” which was a surprise. Still, they are they are filled with the pure wonder and excitement of the Christmas season. They still unreservedly show love, even for the visitor who comes in a few hours per week.
In general, education is defined by summary statistics. How many are above grade, at grade, below grade? Those outside the classroom do not see the innumerable hours teachers spend inventing exercises, activities, games, puzzles, drills that keep video-soaked minds interested in the drudgery of phonics, addition, and subtraction. We do not see the daily triumphs of recognizing sight words and understanding how to count up to 20 from 13. The United Way’s program gives folks like me a window into the small triumphs of school life. We can see how our schools develop informed, kind, generous citizens, the ultimate goal of education.
The United Way needs more volunteers. The benefits to the children may be good, but the benefits for the tutors are better. Each week, children remind me of what is really important.
In the 11th chapter, Verse 6, the prophet Isaiah, wrote,
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
And the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.”
I hope in the New Year, all of us, even honey badgers, can follow the example of small children and exhibit more kindness and love.
Louise Mathews retired from a career in community colleges, and before that, theater. A 13-year come-by in Beaufort, she has been a dingbatter in North Carolina and an upstater from New York.
