The things that frustrate me! Oh where do I even
start? The fact that I have yet to cry from students not listening to me causing me to lose my voice from yelling all time? The lack of respect people give one another, the lack of their
ability to communicate, or the lack of efficiency in the school system??
Respect:
A word I hear probably about ten times a day. Yet, the teachers don't
show the students respect! Students are yelled at all day everyday.
There is no sense of disciplinary system in place besides yelling at
them. Students are expected to respect the teachers time but yet the
teachers are always late, leave the class to talk on the phone, and
lesson plan in the middle of class. Students are all expected to respect
each other, yet students are afraid to talk in class because they are
afraid of being made fun of or they are afraid of just being talked over
by the annoying boy that sits in the front. Students are suppose to
respect eachother's property as well as the school property, then they
throw eachother's stuff on the ground where they also throw their
trash. Not to mention, when we have teacher/parent meetings to talk
about respect, and the moms just talk over one another the entire time.
Lack
of communication: Communication in my mind is a very important part of
life, it's what enables any of us to get anything done! Peruvians would
disagree. Chantelle works at Central Pastoral, The Center of the Diocese
for all of the Chulucanas area, in the health office under two sisters.
It is a rarity that Chantelle doesn't come home completely frustrated solely due to the fact that they don't communicate something with her
then yell at her when it hasn't been done. Two weeks ago, Lacie and I
ended up spending all of our free time helping Chantelle get a project
done that her bosses just didn't tell her to do, until it was past due.
In school I'm often not given directions then have to regrade papers,
rewrite the tests, or reexplain a chapter because I wasn't told how to
do it in the first place. One of these days I guess I'll just learn to
start reading their minds to know when we are going to have a meeting
after school, what days we get out early, and when people are expecting
me to do something.
 | ||||
| Walking bridge over the river in Piura |
The
inefficiency in the school system: This week, we gave our first set of
midterms out to two of our classes. Of the 72 students that took the
test, 15 of them got a C or D, 9 got above a 50%, and everyone else was
lucky to get 20% right. Why is this? Yes, the students don't study,
EVER. But, we also have such a limited amount of time with the students
each week (1.5 hours, not including wasted time. I take away kids
homework on a daily basis for coping someone else's homework right there
in the front row in front of me. They don't have computers, projectors,
or any sort of media to assist in teaching, kids are constantly talking
and therefore constantly getting yelled at. To add to it, they take
their tests outside to try to spread the kids out to avoid cheating.
But, taking them out of their normal learning environment makes for a
lot of distractions especially when other teachers are interrupting
them, Yenny is talking on the phone, and kids are throwing white out
around like dodge-balls because they are more concerned with not
scratching stuff out than their answers. Also, there is no sort of
reward system. Their reward is often not being embarrassed in front of
the rest of their peers. After the test, Yenny went through and called
out every student that got a 20% for the rest of the students to 'ohh'
at!
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| EARTHQUAKE DRILL! |
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| Kids playing injured during the earthquake drill...other students play doctor. Normal? Always prepared for the worst? |
All things considering, we didn't come here to have an easy year,
to recreate the United States, or let our frustrating take away from the
experience. Especially when we don't know what's going on in these kids
homes, we don't know how many parents are around, if they have food on
the table, if their parents encourage them to do well in school, or if
they have to work every afternoon to help provide for their families.
Doesn't make it any less challenging and make me question if what I'm
doing has any purpose but, if I can impact even a handful of them, this
year will be worth it!
Anyway, other events of
the last two weeks: we had an infestation of flees so got the house
fumigated, the termites in my room are here to stay though. Lacie spent a
day in the hospital due to an extreme stomach infection. The dog the
bit me, he lives, I don't have rabies. Our director, Pat, came to visit,
brought Christmas with him (goldfish, granola, cereal, cliff bars,
chocolate, etc). Done some awesome Piura exploring, including walked
into the perfect mass at a beautiful Church. And just busy living,
cooking, cleaning, hand washing clothes, spending time with friends, and
running on Saturday mornings with students.
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