Thabang, Help Me!

at school today, one of the school board members came up to me and demanded help with research. i was quite confused at what she was talking about, so she said she'd come to my house and show me after school. when school let out, she showed up at my door. in hand, she had her 9th grade son's homework. it was an article in english and had 10 questions at the end, 4 of which were to do research with a partner. she wanted me to do the assignment for her. i tried my best to explain i would not do it for her, but i would help her son so he could do it. where is he? at home, of course. she still wanted me to write the answers for him. no! so i read the passage and the questions. then i talked to her and discovered the main problem: she didnt understand the questions that were in english. still refusing to answer the questions, i began to explain what the questions were asking and how her son could find the answers. then i went through the article with her explaining what it was talking about and defining key words in each paragraph. i would have rather explained it to her son, but for some reason that wasnt going to happen. so i figured at least i can explain it to her and her english and knowlege of the subject will improve and maybe by some luck she will explain it to her son instead of doing the assignment for him. that has to be so frustrating for the kid to not know how to do an assignment and then not being able to get help. the teachers are not around to help and the parents that are literate, do not always know english which most assignments are in. and it must be frustrating for a parent to not be able to help the kid with homework. i tried to do a tutoring thing with the high school kids in the evening, but no one ever showed up, so i stopped going as it was a waste of my time. i see it is still needed and wish i could find a way to make it work. but seeing todays situation, the kid wouldnt even get help from me when i was willing and able to help, by either the kid or the parents choice im not sure which. im at a loss.