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Like Totally, Pitcher Perfect New teacher, Kristin Yamane, takes her class to interview the homeless in downtown Los Angeles.
Sometimes all it takes is a bit of first-hand experience. It’s one thing to be told about the consequences of one’s actions—it’s a whole other ballgame to actually go see it. Kristin Yamane is an English teacher at West Adams Prep School in Los Angeles. She’s Japanese American and in her mid-20s, but looks like she could just as easily blend in with her 9th-grade students. Thus, inspiring them appeared a tall challenge. “They were a bit crazy,” she said with a fond, reminiscent chuckle. All of her students enter class with iPods or cell phones attached to their ears. Some have earrings, others nose rings. One rolled in on a skateboard. They all like to talk. They seem impressionable, yet wholly individualistic. A classroom of growing teenagers. In her first semester, Yamane sought out and received a grant from Mentor LA, a non-profit organization working to improve schools and empower neighborhoods in some of the most disenfranchised communities in Los Angeles. Her goal was to conduct a homelessness awareness project for her advisory class. “I wanted to not only expose them to homelessness,” Yamane said, “but I wanted them to see that every homeless person has a story. I wanted them to feel what it’s like to give and help give them an appreciation for what they do have, or feel empowered to take charge of their education.” The project had her students travel down to skid row, walk amongst the homeless, then visit the Union Rescue Mission (URM) and serve food. “At first I was nervous to give them food because I thought they wouldn’t appreciate it or they would think negatively about us,” said Heriberto Duran, one of Yamane’s students. “I thought they might be capable of hurting us. I’ve never done that in my life, helping them out, giving food.” And that was part of the point. None of the students who participated in the project had ever been to skid row. Most had never even heard of it. Very few kids that young have been placed in a position to serve others and most of Yamane’s students didn’t even know the URM existed. Once there, however, the experience was one they say they will never forget. They were given the opportunity to sit down, interact with and interview several people in the URM recovery program. “At first I thought that the homeless were just bums sitting in the street, drinking alcohol,” said Marlen Dimas, speaking candidly about her own personal experiences. “Where I live, there’s a lot of them.” “I used to be scared of the homeless,” added Flor Gonzalez as she recounted her previously held beliefs. “I would hear stories about them being this or that and because of those stories, every time I would see a homeless person, I wouldn’t look at them.” But, sitting in a room at the URM, Flor and her classmates were forced to. The interviews were a means for Yamane to incorporate the real world outing into her classroom. She had her class transcribe their interviews and then write bios about the people they spoke with. “It changed my perspective of homelessness completely because they aren’t the people that you think they are,” said Gaby Garcia. “He was getting out of a really rough divorce and he started drinking,” said Nidia Flores when asked about her interviewee. “While he was drinking, he did drugs. That’s how he started. The divorce was super hard on him. He ended up living on the streets.” It’s stories like these that Yamane wants her kids to focus on. She wants them to understand that homelessness can result from any number of different situations and that it is important to be prepared to avoid those situations. Drugs and alcohol are two very prevalent means to homelessness, but oftentimes there is a reason that people turn to these outlets in the first place. One lady spoke about losing her home, and her way of life, in Hurricane Katrina. “I wanted them to see this and get a little scared,” said Yamane, “but more importantly see how valuable their education is. That was a consistent message the homeless gave them. Stay in school.” The bios the kids wrote have been gathered and bound together with photos to create a book called “Beauty in Darkness” that echoes Lynn Blodgett’s “Finding Grace: The Face of America’s Homeless.” “They were so thankful for the trip, they made me a thank you card,” Yamane said “They did it on their own. They learned so much.” Once back from the trip, many of them said they wanted to go back. Yamane explained that a second trip would need some sort of fundraising as well as involve a lot of their free time. “I wanted to see how many of them were really serious,” said Yamane. “So I sent around a list and told them that they would have to go during the weekends. 15 kids signed up.” Now, those once “crazy” students have responded in other ways as well. They started a sock drive, collecting clean socks to donate to the mission. They’ve played the part of activists going around to other classes, standing in front of their peers and telling them about the homeless, spreading awareness, doing something to help. One person gave up drugs. Another inspired her father to do the same. “My dad used to drink,” said Andrea Guillen. “Then I went and I started to talk to him about it. Now, he doesn’t drink. I told him about everything and he got scared. I told him what could happen to him and how bad it is to be there.” “People just think about the present,” said Llajayra Espinoza. “They don’t think about the future and the bad things that could happen.” “Life, for every person, is hard,” said Flor. “And we have to overcome it. This project really changed my life. I can now look at homeless people and smile at them.” Sometimes, it just takes a firsthand experience. If interested in acquiring the book put together by the class, send inquiries to Jikeda@rafu.com. |
