We never have time. We are strapped inside this three dimensional world and we like it. We wake up, we work, we sleep. Doing this routine for a long period makes you empty inside.
It was one of those evenings where I was procrastinating on LinkedIn, sometimes spying on old university colleagues. I saw this guy posting something about a course. Teaching kids pro bono how to code. Volunteering in Romania. I sip from my beer and I reflect a bit at my life. I don’t know what means to be a volunteer. You see, I grew up with the mentality that time is money and we should not give it for free. Here is what I learned from teaching kids how to code over the last two months.
Don’t worry
Don’t worry. You are not perfect. I am not perfect. They are not perfect. The course is not perfect. The instructions are not perfect. The platform is not perfect. Just don’t worry.
It was the first minute of my first class. Here I am in my upstairs office, sitting in front of 7 kids from 4th grade loosing track of my words. I felt like I was on stage at TEDx. Everyone was curious and shy. I was blushing. I was shy. After talking like an idiot I realised I needed to do something and I stopped. They all started to stare at the screen. I told them the truth. I told them that it’s my first time when I am teaching a class of kids something. I told them that I don’t feel prepared and I am nervous. My disclosure made everyone feel better. They started to relax. To smile and ask me questions. Before I knew it It was the end of the lesson. It felt short. I was hooked. All my worries were swiped away the these 7 code heroes.
Boredom kills
You see, I had this preconception that things have to be simple in order to be understood by kids. At the end of the day I am the expert. I have real life experience. What a foolish thought. I started explaining them simple concepts in Scratch and I made them yawn. The kids are smart. And by smart I mean, they know more Scratch than me. Let’s put it this way. We as adults are too worried about learning something wrong, we try to be good from the first time. These kids are raw hackers. Are raw start-up founders. They throw mud at a wall until it sticks and they do this with a speed that make me humble.
I learned very fast that trying to teach them simple concepts destroys the whole lesson and they are not paying any attention anymore. These kids are our future. Let me come back to boredom. Teachers! Yes you, the real ones, the ones with diplomas, please don’t fucking bore this new generation of kids. Inspire them and listen to them. You might learn more from them then they will learn from you. If you bore a kid you lost a great potential.
Donating your time is therapeutic
I did loose 9 hours of my life with these kids. I gain probably extra 9 years of life.
All my lesson were held after work. I was tired and sometimes fed up with thinking logically and dealing with algorithms. Ok. I am lying. I don’t do algorithms at work. I just place buttons on the screen. I will be honest here. I struggled at first. I felt like quitting after 2 lessons but then something changed. After every lesson I was coming out more energised than I was when I woke up and gulped 2 Italian espressos. I started to look forward to having the lesson again and again. Today I had my last one. We did a hackathon. I’ve witnessed how 7 strangers in a short period of time became friends and managed to self organise and work as a unit and produce a software. And not any software. I asked them to do something to help their community or people in general and they immediately came up with the concept: “The Antibullying Machine”. They did not want the course to finish here. They were a bit sad. They asked me if I wanna continue to be their coding mentor. I did not receive a compliment more beautiful than this in a long time. I spoke to the parents and we decided to continue with all existing courses under the program so until winter I will continue to be bewildered, amazed and happy. If you never did it don’t hesitate. Donate your time for free for a cause and you will not regret it. Trust me. I know what I am talking about.
If you are interested to know more details about my volunteering program “Code Hero”, don’t hesitate to check their website and social media page
Tino
