Learning from one another

Sometimes the men and women who spend time with us here at WSRM learn more from each other than from any of us on staff:

“Gary” arrived for his first day back at the Learning Center in a bad mood. Sue was especially nervous to have Gary in class because of some previous encounters that did not turn out so well.

As he sat down, Sue cautiously approached him and began to help him with his classwork. She could tell right away that Gary was not going to cooperate today. As she started to engage him over some wrong answers on his math paper he immediately became defensive. His voice got louder and his arguments became more and more hostile. He was on the verge of completely exploding when Sue asked him to step outside the classroom to take a break.

Sue did not think she would see him again that day, but to Sue’s surprise, about thirty minutes later Gary was back in his seat, working on his math. Sue’s surprise was even greater when he apologized for his behavior and asked for her forgiveness. For the rest of the day, Gary was cooperative and even a pleasure to work with.

Later, we learned that Gary’s thirty minutes outside the learning center were not spent in isolation. He had wandered into the library just down the hall. There he ran into “John”. John was a Learning Center graduate. Gary opened up to John about his frustrations in the Learning Center. As it turns out, John, too, had his struggles in the classroom. He spent many hours working through obstacles and addressing the emotions that were dredged up. Ultimately though, he had gained insights about himself from his days in the classroom. He had come to the realization that even though academics are taught in the Learning Center, the lessons that are learned can affect a person on a deeper level.

God used John to give Gary a whole new perspective about the Learning Center classroom.

-David P. Miller, Learning and Career Center