By Sebastian Guevara
When a person teaches something, that person who is teaching needs to know that the kids aren’t prepared for this. You need to be patient with them, you need to understand them, you need to read their minds and pretend you are one of them, so in that way, you will know how to teach as they deserve it.
This experience marks a before and an after in my life. Now I understand them when they say: “Professor, I didn’t understand.” I was one of them and yes, learning as a child is a process, but teaching children is a very different (and difficult) process. All that makes me know that they need our love and our understanding.
The way I taught them was simple, but the difference is that I gave them love, to each one of them. It didn’t matter if there was a smart child in my class (I take them to help me helping the other, they need to understand that they also could help) and knew everything, every single soul in my class received love.
I took my time to explain my lessons step by step, going to each one’s chairs to help them. I tried to make them think they were the best, that they could do it (even if I wasn’t sure they could). If you believe in them, they will believe in themselves more than you can imagine. That is the motivation kids need. They have to believe that they are intelligent (and they are, actually).
Aldair was one of my favorites (the picture is with him and his beautiful sister). He always finished the sheet quickly. He was (and is) very smart and I am sure that kid has very good grades at school. I told him that if he needs help, he can count on me to help. And I said that to everyone; I’m going to be there to help them. When you start to understand math, you start to love math.
My kids are pure math, they are pure love for me.
Sebastian is a 20 year old Make a Miracle college scholarship student who spent 5 weeks this summer teaching math to underprivileged children in Peru. He also assisted and filled in many other classes such as soccer, rap & hip hop, crafts and cake decorating.