Week 3

My third week at the Boys and Girls Club was another beneficial experience. I was planning on working with 11 & 12 year olds, but instead in the last moment I decided to work with the youngest kids- 5-7. I think every one should experience that. The kids are so incredibly welcoming, rather unaffected by the world surrounding them. Some of them come from unpleasant environments of unhealthy living conditions and disorderly structured families, but all of that does no seem to matter. At that age there still too young to understand it, every one seems as respectable and powerful to them, all it takes is the appearance of a grown up, as they and we used to refer to older individuals.
The previous week when I had worked with the 9-10 year old group it made an impression on me how much less they respected the authority of the regular staff and myself, its not that they were misbehaving, it was just the way they generally perceived the things told to them by us, the grown ups. Its not the same way with the young ones, for them all that matters is the appearance of age it seems like. I spoke to one of the workers about this, and he told me that he enjoys working with the younger kids especially because of that. What are the reasons for this I ask myself? What is it that kids experience after they reach the age of 8 or 9.
The most trouble creating group is 11-12. They cause more trouble even then the teenagers, which are intuitively expected to be the highest ranking when it comes to this criterion. I don’t remember this being the case with my generation, it seems like something has changed, something has made us go trough a period of self-searching at a slightly younger age.
In my next visit I am planning on working with this group of kids and see what exactly it is that is so different about them. I have not worked with them yet, I have only conversed with the staff at the club about them. This will be an exciting time for me and I am looking forward to it.