Purple Haze
The power of influence
By Lauren Bagian

Jan. 14, 2010

Every Thursday afternoon students become the teachers. When elementary students at Dillsburg Elementary are struggling in their core classes, it’s time for the after school tutoring program. However, this isn’t a normal tutoring program where the teachers stay after school to give their students extra help; it’s the high school students who are doing the teaching. Students from the Northern High School Key Club volunteer every week to help an elementary student succeed in their studies. Each high school student is paired with an elementary student who they will stay with all year so that both participants can get comfortable and learn from each other. It really is a winning arrangement.

Some adults from the community and teachers at Dillsburg Elementary also tutor after school, but it’s really the high school age tutors that the elementary students want to see. The influence that students in high school have over their younger peers is incredibly strong. I have been amazed on many occasions at the excitement I see from the students I have tutored each year when they see me by chance, perhaps at the grocery store or in a high school concert. It’s almost as if they say, “Look Mommy, I know that old kid!” It’s very true. I remember being in elementary school and waiting for day 6 of the school cycle with built-up excitement waiting for my class’s Big Buddy from the high school to come and spend the day with us just so that I could say that I knew a cool high school student.

Being a high school student in an environment where you are surrounded by impressionable young children is a huge responsibility. You may not even realize the lessons that they are learning from you, or the mannerisms that they are picking up, but it is definitely happening. Therefore, make sure that these young learners are only mimicking good things.