The wide-eyed innocence of a child...

Children, innocent. Yeah right but always generate funny moments.

Yesterday, I finished my first classroom volunteer stint for Junior Achievement. For those not familiar with JA, visit the website.

If you have ever worked with a group of third graders, you know that it can be a little taxing but a ton of fun. So, I had the privilege of teaching 26 third grade students about the structure of a city and some of the institutions that are integral parts of a city's operations.

The single greatest challenge that I had with teaching was that it was hard for me to speak with them. I spent so much time throughout my path to higher education and learning in developing and sustaining a larger and more intellectual vocabulary. Working on these lesson plans, I really found myself without the words to accurately convey to the students the lesson I was trying to teach that were at a second - fifth grade reading level. I felt like I was insulting their intelligence by essentially talking down to them but they are also in the third grade so what can you do?

The coolest thing about the whole experience was during our end of program review. The amount of information that children retain is amazing. To go from no knowledge about zoning to being able to accurately identifying types of establishments by primary focus and contribution to community and locating them in the right area after one 45 minute lesson taught almost 6 weeks ago was outstanding to me. Seeing this first-hand makes me feel that those people who say that children should be taught more complex information at younger ages know what they are talking about.

So all in all, I would say the program was a success. Each kid made me a homemade card saying thanks. I was taken aback by the careful thought put into each card. These cards indicated the worth of the JA experience on the lives of the kids as well as my life as I continue to teach these lessons to students that might not otherwise get this information through formal training.

Kudos to JA and I am looking forward to my next class, possibly second grade. I hear they learn about production and individual vs. batch manufacturing. SWEET!!!!