| Erica Two years ago, a girl changed my life: her name is Erica. She�s tall, thin, has curly brown hair and sparkling blue eyes. She�s always cheerful and dresses smartly. She is not only beautiful, but also perfectly courteous and generous to everyone. I was a little intimidated by her, and understandably so�she was perfect. Then I learned her dirty little secret. Erica was in my Modern World History class and one day we were assigned to work on a project together. We were supposed to draw a map of North America and label a number of important features on it. After the instructions were presented, Erica turned to me and asked not in the voice of an abusive popular girl, but in a perfectly sincere tone, �You�re smart. How do we do this?� I explained the instructions again to her, and she was still lost. I suggested she just start out by drawing the United States, Mexico, and Canada. She drew three big circles in a row on her paper, and labeled them �Canada�, �USA�, and �Mexico�. I assumed that she just didn�t know what the countries were shaped like, so I offered her an Atlas. Even when presented with a map of the region she was supposed to draw, she couldn�t do it. I pointed out specifically that Canada was North of the United States. She was amazed. She explained to me that she had heard people talk about Canada, but she had had no idea where it was. I was surprised that a fifteen-year-old living in Michigan didn�t know where Canada was, and taken aback that she couldn�t draw anything even remotely resembling North America, even when offered a map. But it wasn�t her fault. That touched me more than anything else. When I first looked at Erica, I saw a successful girl�attractive, polite, friendly, and well dressed�but something was holding her back from being successful in school. She couldn�t make a sketch of a map on a page, or paraphrase a newspaper article. Writing an essay, she often didn�t use complete sentences. Her thought process had a gap in it. For the rest of the semester I helped her with any assignment with which she needed help. I had never felt so motivated for someone else to succeed. When Erica figured something out on her own, or earned a good grade on an assignment, I felt like I had accomplished something. At first I didn�t fully grasp it, but then I realized that I wanted to teach. Through teaching, whether I ignite a passion for learning, or merely help a struggling student achieve competence, I can touch someone�s life. |