6 x 8 = ?

This week, as part of my work at the Campus, I attended training sessions to learn about the Expressways to Learning education program. All day on both Monday and Tuesday were spent at The Factory in Franklin, TN, a suburb to the South of Nashville where lots of music celebrities live. I actually saw Michael W. Smith (the Christian singer, you know… “and friends are friends forever…”) eating at the same restraunt as I was on Monday.

I, along with one of the other Campus interns, will be teaching reading classes using the Expressways to Learning system, which is computer-based, and uses methods that will help those with learning disabilities. It’s all based on left brain vs. right brain ideas, and other confusing concepts.

Anyway, even though spending two days learning about computer software did help me realize how much I really like working at the Campus, I did figure out why it took me several years and tons of frustration to learn my math facts in elementary school (which is a task that I really never completed since I still have to count on my fingers a lot to this day). On Tuesday morning, I learned that being able to play music by ear is a sure sign of being a “mixed dominance” person. That means that my right brain (which controls creative things) is trying to do left brain (logic) activities, like learning what 6 times 8 is. [I just had to consult with Tara about what 6 times 8 is]. Maybe I should have used Expressways to Learning when I was young. Or, maybe $100 a week was too much for that.

It did occur to me that there seems to be a lot of right brained homeless people, which might explain why they haven’t been able to make it in a left brained world. You only have to walk through the art-lined halls of the Campus to notice the level of artistic expression that a great number of our participants are capable of. It also doesn’t take much to figure out that a good number of them have trouble following a schedule.

Oh, and by the way, the answer is 48.

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SUKKOTH AT SECOND

Have you ever heard a sermon delivered from a cardboard box? I have now. This Sunday at Second Presbyterian, we observed the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth. During this festival, which was actually a few weeks ago, Jews remember the time their people spent wandering in the wilderness as homeless people. Celebrating Sukkoth was a way for us as twenty-first century Christians to remember our own history of homelessness as we remember those in our own midst who are without permanent shelter.

Second observed Sukkoth as a way of getting everyone in the right frame of mind as Room in the Inn, the Campus’s winter emergency shelter program, begins next Wednesday night. From November 1 through March 31, hundreds of homeless people will be housed in over 150 church buildings around Nashville as meals and conversations are shared along with the offering of a bed with a mint on the pillow.

The first step in helping those who have been dealt less in life is remembering that they exisit. Walking through a village of cardboard box dwellings that the children and youth of Second Pres. had made, and hearing a sermon preached from a refrigerator box were a good way to start this season of reaching out to the least of these among us.

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Picture: Box dwelling-making at 2PC youth group meeting, after I talked with the youth group about homelessnes and the Campus a few Sunday nights ago.