By VICKI BROWN
Colleton County High School teens in Barbara Gehlmann’s third-period English class are becoming long distance mentors. The juniors are pen pals with first graders in Temecula, California.
Jarid Fair, 16, is an eleventh grader at CCHS and says he is excited about the class’s new pen pal project.
“The kids are six and seven years old, and we have to write the letters so they can understand them. So, we need to write them the same way a children’s book would sound,” said Fair.
The idea for the project began with Gehlmann’s assistant teacher, Deresha Davis, who once lived in Temecula. She connected the local high school class with children in the California elementary school. Her idea was to have the teens become pen pals with the California children and learn something about a completely different culture.
“The kids are smart, the school is advanced, and the children can speak three languages in their school,” said Fair. “They can speak Mandarin, English and Spanish. But their culture is very different from ours,” he added. “They don’t know what grits are!”
According to the CCHS students, Temecula is right outside of San Diego and sits near wineries. Not only is the area known for wine and cutting-edge schools, but it is also known for chocolate bacon, funnel cakes and hot dogs.
Because the cultural differences between Colleton teens and wine country children are so immense, the CCHS students are hoping to learn a lot about life 2,430 miles away. But they are also hoping to teach those children about their lives and mentor them. “We want to help them understand about being successful and going to college,” said Amber Parker, a student in the CCHS class. Other students remarked that they wanted to teach the children to be prepared, love life, choose their friends wisely, and learn to love everybody.
What is so surprising about this class is that just one week ago, the teens were sitting in a virtual class, unhappy, uninterested and failing. Principal Maurice Cannon worked with Gehlmann and Davis to create the class and put the students back into a classroom with talented, caring teachers.
Since the class began, students have become engaged, completed their school work and experienced success in the classroom as well as higher grades. Gehlmann said she is pleased with the students’ progress and the new pen pal project.
“These are great kids who just needed the personal instruction. I am happy with everything they are doing,” she said.
