How Maddy Reads It - Part I

How Maddy Reads It

  **Look for my weekly blog series every Wednesday through July 18^th**

 My name is Madeline Driscoll-Miller, and I am an intern at Literacy Action. I recently completed my freshman year at George Washington University and returned home for the summer. Coming home for three months after being away for almost a year was stressful, and I knew that I would need some type of summer job. However, I wanted to find something meaningful, something that would give me real world work experience. When my dad told me about Literacy Action, Inc. and what they do, I knew it was the place for me. My sorority’s main philanthropy just so happens to be literacy, mainly childhood literacy. I thought that LAI and their focus on adult literacy could give me a whole new perspective on the issue. So after sending in my resume and having a phone interview, I finally got to visit LAI on my spring break. That’s when I really became excited for the summer.

    On an average day, I spend most of time in the back offices at LAI, helping the staff with daily tasks such as filing, organizing, research, etc. Monotonous tasks like that can pretty much be the name of the game for the life of an intern, but not for me. Yesterday, I had the chance to observe a Math 2 Class. It was a small class, only eight students; six women and two men. I sat in the back of the class, not wanting to disturb their normal routine. The instructor, Ms. Dawn, started the class out with a fun activity. The students had to throw a magnet at a target. Whichever number their magnet landed on was the amount of fake money they would collect. With their newfound money, the students were to take a catalog from the table and shop. The catalogs were from stores that most people shop at on a regular basis, Publix and Family Dollar to name a few. After they “shopped” for about ten minutes, they wrote their total amount of money collected, and total amount spent on the board for everyone else to see. The whole class was centered on this one activity, with every problem reverting back to that exercise.

     The first problem Ms. Dawn gave the students was figuring out the mean, median, mode, and range of the total money collected. This is when I had a real “light bulb” moment. I remember first learning the concepts of mean, median, mode, and range in sixth grade, not even twelve years old. As I sat in the back of the room observing the students, I noticed one huge difference between them and my sixth grade class. These eight adults were more diligent and adamant about solving the problem than any of my classes. I could tell they all wanted to be there and to better themselves. When one student finished her work, she proceeded to walk around the room to help all of her classmates. While the material may have been a sixth grade level, the attitude and atmosphere was much more mature. These adults, for whatever reasons, missed out on pieces of their education as children and young adults. With a second chance at creating a better life for themselves and their loved ones, they give 100%.

     I hope to be able to observe more of these classes during my time here at LAI. The staff and teachers work incredibly hard every single day to make LAI possible. And it’s moments like that, in classroom 5, when all the work that goes into successfully running a small nonprofit makes sense. When I see these adults so happy to be learning, and so thankful to have this opportunity, I am even more grateful to have the privilege to spend my summer at LAI.