RSVP VOLUNTEER< LOWELL HARDISON (Text by Pete Porter; Photos by Margaret Porter)

Eight years ago he retired from the pager industry and his wife, Dee Hardison (then Mayor of our City), suggested that he should see if he could apply his talents along the lines of her activity. Dee had been a teacher in special-ed for a number of years and Lowell was fascinated by some of the stories she told him. The "America Reads" program was looking for people at this time and they both started getting involved at Torrance Elementary School. They did this for the next four years until Dee went on to volunteer at Harbor General Hospital around the time that the hospital was in dire need of help. However, Lowell told her that he liked what he was doing in the America Reads program and Dee suggested that he contact RSVP to see if he could do something similar in that organization. As their children had all gone to the local John Adams Elementary School, just down the street from their house, Lowell asked the staff there if they needed any help. He was welcomed with open arms and, since that day, he has been visiting the campus as a volunteer every Wednesday morning.

Lowell initially went to work with Mrs. Musgrave at the school, working with children who needed just a little bit of extra help, as well as some of those who were further ahead in their studies. Lowell told me that this work turned out to be really rewarding. He particularly spent time with five or so children by sitting with them in the cafeteria with a book that he had borrowed from another class. He would select a chapter in the book and each student would then read part of that chapter. He said that some of these books were fairly challenging so he would use a dictionary to look up words that the children had trouble with. After they had learned a new word the group would then join the main class and write the word on the blackboard. The children in the class would then have to form a sentence that included the word in question. Anyone who couldn't understand the word then had to ask a member of Lowell's group what it meant and this became a great learning experience for everyone. Lowell told me that his main challenge with the group was that they took advantage of the fact that he couldn't remember who had previously been the first one to read. (They all wanted to be first in line!) He solved this by writing the numbers one to five on separate pieces of paper and letting his students pick them out of a hat before each lesson. Lowell also worked with some of the many bilingual children at the school. Although most of these were Hispanic, he said that there was one student who was from Pakistan. He initially noticed this student having to internally translate each sentence that he was given. Howver,he finally became very fluent in English.

Mrs. Musgrave then told Lowell that she had a few children who were struggling with math. Since he was already on campus, Lowell started working with these children in this subject. Lowell now spends each Wednesday morning at John Adams Elementary School, starting at 8:30. Lowell had just spent the first part of this particular morning with a Third Grade Math class before he managed to meet with us in the school cafeteria during recess. He said that he just sits in the back of the class while the kids have their lesson but, when a student has a problem with an exercise, he will go to help them out after they raise their hand. Lowell says that he has two names amongst the students. As some of the younger students have trouble pronouncing the name of Hardison, they just call him "Mr. H".

After our talk, Lowell said that he would be going to the school computer laboratory. The school has 40 computers set up in this laboratory. It happened that the budget this year was so tight that the school didn't have anybody available that knew enough about computers to help out with this task. Hence, everything got dumped on the teacher and they were really in need of some help. Lowell said that he is just there to make sure that the machines are turned on so that the students can access them with their individual passwords. After signing in each student's computer loads up his individual profile and displays a math or English lesson at the appropriate level for that student. Progress to a higher level occurs when that student correctly answers a set of questions at the end of each lesson. Lowell is just there to take care of any problems that may occur. For example, he said that one student just needed to know how to produce an upper case letter when he was involve in one of the English Language programs. The teachers also love this computer learning method because they can bring up each student’s profile. From this they are able to see how the pupil is progressing and how their percentage ranks against the rest of the class or the National Standards. This information is then available for the teacher to share with the parents during the school year or at teacher/parent conferences. Lowell told me that there was a real challenge last week when one of the third grade classes used the Internet to help them with a project they were working on. He helped each pupil log into Google where they had to look up their subject matter. After the data had been checked to be appropriate for the students to digest, they were able to print it out and use it use it for their written reports. Lowell said that it was quite an event to see forty third graders on the Internet at the same time, Googling such things as the Tundra, the Rain Forest, or whatever it was they had to find out.

Although the school teaches children up to 5th grade level, Lowell admitted that he had never been promoted above the 3rd grade at the school (with regard to the children he was allowed to interact with, of course)! However, he said that it was really good working with these children. He was busy working with some students one day, underlining some words with a pencil, when a little boy who was watching him said, “Mr. H., your pencil really shakes!” Lowell replied that this sometimes happens when one gets older. He then noticed that the boy was trying to write with a shaking pencil while saying that it was “really hard to do that”. Lowell had to tell him, with a chuckle, that it got a lot easier “once you got a bit older.” Another time he was approached by another boy who remarked, “Mr. H. - you really have a wide forehead!” Lowell was able to assure him (again with a chuckle) that “foreheads tended to grow a bit when you get older.”

Lowell commented that the payback for doing this kind of volunteer work was truly fantastic. He said that being able to work with young kids was so uplifting - “they are just like sponges and so appreciative.” Every time that he walks out of the campus he said that he can not help smiling. Lowell said that it was such a great feeling and that every once in a while a child’s face will light up as he exclaims “Oh! Now I understand this, It’s really so easy!” Every time that happens, Lowell told me that he has to think that, if he hadn’t been there, that child would still be struggling. He admitted that he wouldn’t trade what he was doing for anything and actually looked forward to waking up on each Wednesday morning. He said that he would keep on doing this as long as they’ll have him or as long as he is able to keep up with the 3rd graders! Lowell said that it was a great opportunity for anyone who is retired and only requires getting a TB shot every two years and going through a simple screening test before being allowed on campus.

John Adams Elementary School makes use of many volunteers. This is not just to help the children in their studies, but for tasks that need doing around the office, etc. This school is just typical of the many within our city, so, if you want to help mold our future adults, please contact the RSVP office and let them know you are available.