More than a Technique in Haiti

by a Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach participant

As an addendum, in our staff meeting today, Michelet, one of the local MCC workers, shared how the seminar had impacted him. He told a beautiful story about how last night, his young son was frustrated with writing out the alphabet. He could do all the letters, except for "b." He just could not do it and his brothers and his mother were giving him a hard time and saying that he couldn't do it. But Michelet decided to take another approach and use positive re-enforcement. He said "look how well you did on all these other letters, you can do this one too." He tried, and it was a little better. Michelet said "great work, you are starting to get it." And he kept trying and Michelet kept encouraging him and finally he got it
really well and could do it repeatedly. His son got very excited and ran around showing everyone in his family how he could do it and Michelet asked him to do it on the black board at their house in front of everyone and he was so proud. I thought it was a beautiful example of the power of the principles and attitudes that are inherent in the "Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach" approach. It also illustrates that what people are learning is not just some new technique they can use in the work, when they do seminars or when they are teaching. It is a philosophy that can be used in all aspects of our life and is very important for building up and encouraging those around us.

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