Law Student Intimidated by Seventh Grade Language Arts Class

Geoff and I decided to start volunteering at a local middle school. The school is nearby, and it's just an hour a week. Today was our first day. When we got to class, the teacher handed us some pages with Aesop's Fables printed on them. The class read one of the fables aloud, then the teacher asked the students what it meant. Geoff and I exchanged a quick glance. I had NO IDEA what it meant. I slouched down in my seat--don't call on me, don't call on me, don't call on me! Yikes. Luckily that section was just ending and some younger students came in. Phwew. Sixth graders. This, I think I can handle.

The kids are great, and it was fun to meet them. We did some one-on-one tutoring to assess their reading fluency. But this is an urban school, and there are some unique things incident to that. For example, Geoff was working with one student, and found out that he had just moved here from Milwaukee. "When did you move here?" Geoff asked. "After my brother got shot," answered the kid. "He's dead."

I got stranded at Chipotle this evening, when I thought I could pop in for a quick din-din, and a huge downpour ensued while I was stuffing my face with burrito love. I wasn't about to walk back to school through those buckets of rain (didn't want to ruin my nice blazer), so called Matt the second he emerged from Evidence and he came and picked me up and drove me the block-and-a-half to school. What a pal.