Never has a name better described the function of an agency.  Whenever I enter the school, I see others from the community coming in or leaving after visiting with their children.  The volunteers have on their badges, making us easily recognizable in the halls.  The children take all this coming and going as a matter of course. In Rivera Elementary, more than 100 children have mentors.  Sometimes, as a class passes down the hall, children will spot a volunteer he or she has come to know.  They smile and wave and give a little skip.  We are neighbors.

 

I work with two girls.  One needs additional help with her reading.  She works so hard at it, and as we go over the words together, I become amazed I ever learned to read. She is bright, eager and well-organized. I was surprised at how well she can find the spelling words in the Jumble exercises, then realized, this is what she does every day. She takes a page of jumbled letters and determinedly makes sense of them.  Each week, I think she teaches me a lot more than I teach her.  And we play. I confess, yes, we do.  Sometimes when she has completed a particularly stressful and difficult task, we rest the last 10 minutes and play a game. Not always. But sometimes. We talk, a little.  She has the confidence of a well-loved child.  Her parents work different shifts so someone is always home with the children.

 

The second girl can do her work easily, but this year sometimes she just....doesn't. She gets behind and then has to catch up.  And she is proud of herself when she has done it. She, too, is well-loved, but this is a year of changes for her.  Sometimes, she daydreams to get away a bit. Her mother helps her a lot at home, so my job with her is to be an adult friend. We play games, too. We talk a bit.  She gets my undivided attention for 45 minutes. 

 

All the children soak up that undivided attention. No, it doesn't take a whole village to raise a child, but it does take a community somewhere.  When I work with my children in the CIS office, other volunteers are there with their children. You might be surprised how often the room is filled with laughter as volunteers and the children connect.  I have no idea what impact we have on their grades. I do know the school children who have mentors are considered lucky by the others, and not just because they get one more Christmas present.  They are singled out for one-on-one attention every week, and they thrive on that. They don't get graded or disciplined by us. They are praised for successes, cheered on to keep trying. That's all.

 

That's huge.  A branch of therapy called filial therapy works with parents to spend some time interacting without any criticism with each child for 30 minutes or so once or twice a week.  The results have been remarkable.  Just pay attention to enjoying each other.  What a concept. 

 

Last week I encountered a businessman at the mentor desk as we were both signing out. 

 

"You know," I said, "I never leave here without feeling better than when I came in."

 

He nodded.  "What this is," he said seriously, "is extremely important."