Vacationing With an Being from Outer Space

As the title suggests, I have been on a bit of vacation/break with an entity from outer space.  Actually he is our exchange student from China.  As I have stated many times, I have lived all over the world and many times I have lived in very close quarters to people from all walks of life.  I always thought of myself as pretty patient, understanding and even cosmopolitan, if you will.  Well, that was a mistake on my part. Over the course of our vacation, I was astounded to find myself very perplexed by the young man who has been sharing our house.  Was he, in fact, and alien?  He is very gifted in the analytical fields, but he seemed to have little to no understanding of anything else. He has been very much an introvert while here, so I decided to have him help with some gardening and other outdoor activities.  I soon discovered that he had never used a broom.  He was unsure of even how to properly hold it for sweeping.  I moved him to some light raking and he immediately turned the rake upside down and began to push it across the grass.  I wanted to laugh, but did not want to embarrass him too much.  Next we decided to do some walking and he got a blister the first day out.  Bikes were out as he did not know how to ride one.  I was just at a loss for words when I discovered how little about basic summer activities this young teen even understood.  To say the least, it was an interesting time.

I relate this brief story as a lesson.  Often we as instructors enter a class with preconceptions about our students based on what we see, think that we know, or have perhaps experienced in the past.  In this case I approached my student with the idea that he knew basic gardening etc.  Obviously, I was wrong and I found myself feeling a little guilty about my line of thought.  I should have been more patient and rewarded what he was capable of rather than bemoaning what he was not.  As an instructor it is important to be a bit humble at times.  We have to work with the students we have not the students we think we have.