Fall 2005 COURIER online

Viewpoint

Moments in Service
By Molly Kahn '01

After walking across the lawn of Le Mans, diploma in hand, I headed across the street and entered the Alliance for Catholic Education Program at the University of Notre Dame. A humanistic studies and religious studies double major exposed me to exceptional teachers who consistently encouraged me to critically examine my views of the world. Armed with the examples of great teachers and an admittedly cliche' desire to change the world one child at a time, I found myself voluntarily displaced in Memphis where I soon learned more than I would ever teach.

In teaching, an inherent tension exists as the teacher is a servant--a servant with authority. The first day of school is always a bit nerve-wracking, but I was more nervous now that I found myself on the other side of the teacher's desk. In Memphis, I was assigned to teach junior and senior English and freshmen religion. Until my students entered my classroom, all I knew of them could be found on my course roster, and I quickly learned that their knowledge of me was limited to my name on their course schedules. With my new identity of "Miss Kahn" written neatly on the board, I welcomed my students into our classroom. As we looked at each other, several students boisterously declared, "We thought you were going to be some Chinese girl."

\We first learned obvious aspects of one another: I was not Asian and according to my students, I spoke with a heavy Chicago accent. My students quickly introduced me to the true meaning of multiple intelligences. While some students daydreamed and dozed through my valiant efforts of making Hamlet engaging and relevant, the sudden breakdown of our window unit air conditioner awakened them, and they sprang into action. As I watched them deftly repair the necessary air conditioner, I realized that although their British literature grades did not reflect scholarly achievement, these students possessed specific technical abilities far beyond my limited home-improvement skills of changing light bulbs. This quiet moment of restoring a tolerable temperature to the classroom was a vivid example of my students' capacity for success and their sense of social responsibility. Arguably, in terms of skill application, air conditioner repair may be more helpful than an ability to analyze Shakespeare.

Although some texts like Hamlet required more effort to engage my students, other texts became the basis for the most significant moments in my experience of service. Beloved and The Things They Carried were formative texts in our classroom. After establishing a rapport and trust with my classmates, Beloved provided a context for my students and I to delve into the sensitive issues of power, slavery, and love. Similarly, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried was a powerful text for the exploration of violence, power, and truth. In Memphis, I led the teaching of this text and was humbled to observe my Sudanese refugee students' reaction to the scenes of wartime violence.

Frank discussions about our experiences of the text revealed the relational aspect of reading. Just as we brought diverse backgrounds to the classroom, those same backgrounds shaped our experience of the text. Although I would never know how it felt to experience Beloved as the descendant of slaves or The Things They Carried as an eyewitness of war, I had the privilege of witnessing my students' relationship to the texts.

In my experience, I do not know if I even made a dent in saving the world, but I do know that my students made a dent in me. Social responsibility is relational value. Service means engaging other people and being open to the lessons they have to teach you.

After graduating from the ACE Program, Kahn returned to her hometown of Peoria, Ill., where she teaches American literature and advanced placement literature at Dunlap High School. She is active in the Junior League of Peoria and fundraising for St. Jude.