what seems so simple... is still teachable

Last week, I had the privilege of waiting in line at our local Fedex Kinkos store. Ironically, this is a 24 hour location, very similar to the one I frequented on late night project completions during my Concordia University Irvine days.

While there and waiting for 350 flyers to be tri-folded by their fancy-dancy machine, a man came up beside me to get help from a Kinkos representative.

I paid no attention to him as I was there to do the same and didn’t feel the need to overhear his business… that was, until I heard the conversation progress.

I do not have the memory to recall word for word details, but let me share with you the synopsis.

A man, in his 40’s, with a handwritten note in hand, asked the Kinkos employee to email something for him. After checking with a higher up, he was told no due to company policy. As the representative responded, she shared other avenues for him to accomplish his goal, such as using one of the computers that you could rent time on the internet. This avenue seemed quite simple and understandable to me, and most likely to you as you read this.

The man responded with, “I don’t have email. I haven’t used a computer. Can’t you just do it for me?

Now, I’m not sure if he was really sharing that he had never once touched a computer in his life or was exaggerating in order to gain some momentum to get his goal accomplished, but it still made me think.

In today’s world, filled with technology, people still exist who have not used the ease of email, loaded a graphics charged online video, or even typed a word document.

This man, with his handwritten note he wanted emailed, was just asking for someone to help him accomplish a task that was foreign to him. Without the resources to help him, the woman was left to leave the man with her words of what he could do next, but not hands to guide him.

The minute of conversation I observed helped to make me more aware as a teacher that I need to not just use my words to guide on tasks - tasks that seem so simple and common in my eyes, may be seen as stressful, fearful, or foreign to the eyes of my students… and to fellow Kinkos customers.