From an incredibly early age, Wonder Boy has been drawn to situations in which he has the opportunity to teach others. When he was very small, he would teach one of us the things he learned at day care or that he taught himself. As he got older and we started to enjoy performing science experiments together, he would consent to me recording him so that he could send a recroded lesson to his grandparents or cousins.
In this series of photos, the Boy was giving a lesson on how to mix the perfect glass of chocolate milk. This was a lesson with a lot of staying power - we still follow his method today!
Wonder Boy comes from a long line of teachers. His Great Great Grandmother was a teacher in a one-room school house. Her only daughter, the Boy's Great Grandmother, followed in her footsteps to the school house door and taught for over 40 years. Again, her only daughter, Wonder Boy's Great Aunt, made her career teaching and passed on the teacher gene to one of her daughters and one of her granddaughters as well. That's quite a lineage of teaching, don't you think?!
Wonder Boy spent his high school years heavily involved in the Computer Science team. He loved the challenge and problem solving aspect, but another big draw to being part of the team was his mentoring role for younger or less experienced teammates.
We were not sure if he would be able to find any kind of mentoring opportunities in this day of the virtual classroom, but I am so pleased to say that, well, life finds a way! The Boy has a friend from high school in his programming class and she is a novice programmer. So the Boy has dedicated a bit of his time each week to going over the assignments with her and making sure she has all the skills needed to succeed in this class! He also stays on the Zoom session after he has completed the assignments to act as a virtual help desk for anyone else who might need a hand.
The Boy claims that he wants to program for a living some day after graduation, but I hope that, no matter what path he decides to follow, I hope that he can continue to find opportunities to teach. It is in his blood and seeing the natural high he rides after a tutoring session is reason enough for me to hope he sticks with it in some form or fashion!
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