American-Latino Immigrants Proudly Assisting the Community

Maybe I should have written this in August. That’s when it really started. O, ESL just started for me only a couple of weeks ago. But the coordinators have been working hard all summer to make this semester successful. You’ve got a hundred students, maybe a dozen teachers and another dozen assistants. Somehow someone has to arrange all of that into some sort of order. Hours and hours sending e-mails, making phone calls, keeping records and attending meetings are all done behind the scenes and with little appreciation.

Our organization provides ESL classes two nights a week at dozens of church basements scattered throughout the metropolitan area. Classroom locations have to be secured. Teachers have to be recruited and trained. Students have to be tested and evaluated and placed in the appropriate class. Somebody has to get the refreshments. It’s a lot of work.

Most coordinators are older ladies in their fifties and above. At one location the coordinators are a thirty-something man and a thirty-something woman with a lot of energy, but for the most part they are older ladies with a lot of energy. They are all under appreciated. Some are retired widows who maybe are lonely and don’t have a lot to do. Others are football widows or baseball widows who want to occupy themselves in a productive manner while their men are watching the game. They all have a lot of energy.

I’ve seen the coordinators as rather pushy, telling you what to do and when and how to do it. But I understand that they have to deal with a lot of personalities too. At our planning meeting, the coordinators instructed us that after every class there would be a five to ten minute devotional period. They wanted the teachers to ask that all the students hold hands and sing a hymn. One Latino volunteer said that men of the Latino culture might not appreciate holding hands with other men. Another teachers said that they’re in our country now and should adapt to our cultural norms [Note: men holding hands is not a part of North American culture]. So the coordinators are stuck in the middle of this controversial argument. It was resolved that the students would be asked to hold hands, but they didn’t have to comply.

To be a coordinator you have to have a lot of energy. You have to be forceful. You have to be a doer. You have to be a giver. Git’r’done. I’m laid back, and I’ve never appreciated that type of personality. But as I see the efforts of these people, I appreciate what they do and what they are. They are deserving of our utmost respect. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for a coordinator.