I find myself the center of the room, though eyes are far from all on me. The classroom is filled with 27 students packed into tight rows and sweating. A few at the front avidly pay attention, yelling out answers whenever I question the class. The rest talk amongst themselves waiting, perhaps, to be told to be quiet. But even once the request comes their conversations halt for mere seconds until the faces turn back to their friends. I’ve been told the best way to get attention is to bring out the bamboo stick. Alas, I’ve yet to come to such aggravation.
I have put into my job title the teaching of middle school and elementary school students in my town. For the last sixth months I have taught an environment course at the EPP (elementary school), started up a lifeskills course with the middleschool women, and helped the English teacher with his beginner English course, something I feel slightly obligated to do as he cannot carry a conversation in the tongue. If I have no other skill, I do speak English.
I enjoy both of these classes. I’ve always liked working with kids and since joining Peace Corps have certainly found them easiest to work with of any community members. Ever enthusiastic, not as likely to laugh at me maliciously when I shovel a hole differently. In general, they seem to like having me around. And both courses has led to other work such as parents who learn about their kids making composts.
But at times I find the work outstandingly frustrating. Take for example my environment class yesterday. These kids are all 9 to 10 years old, have been in school for 5 years now so have grown accustomed to the idea of learning (something that if you walk into the youngest kids’ classroom is surely not comprehended; it’s an absolute zoo of youngsters fighting over oranges or bananas…whatever was brought for snack by someone else). So I go into my class, having lesson-planned for a couple hours during the week in order to make sense out of this environment material that they haven’t, in the last few months, seemed to receive very well. It is utter gibberish to them. So I always bear myself with a game, a participatory model, a field trip, or some activity to make it more fun and gain their attention. This is a kind of learning that they are completely unused to, of course. They are comfortable with a teacher writing paragraphs upon paragraphs in French (a language they do not speak nor understand) on the board, and then copying it down). But still I am convinced that this is the way to make it happen! To get through to them! To make a point!
Anyways, yesterday. I have come bearing two games. One is a sort of musical chairs that represents the affects of deforestation on the lemurs. It goes reasonably well, as I play myself, the big bad human who needs to cut down the trees for realistic reason such as cooking, building homes, and of course, building churches. As the music stops and one of the students, or “lemurs” is left without a spot I tell him that his tree has been cut down and so he has died because he had nowhere to sleep and a predator ate him. This goes pretty well and is pretty solidly understood, though its clear the only thing they are interested are the jams leaking out of my ipod.
The second game is meant to portray erosion. I’m trying to show them why trees, and their roots, are needed in order to stop water from pulling tons of dirt and sand into the ocean, destroying the land. So I set up a relay race and make two teams. I tell the team members that they are all water. I also set up six kids in front of one of the teams as stones and trees that they need to crawl under (between their legs) or over (leap-frog style). The other team has no obstacles at all. In my head this will show them how fast water will move if it doesn’t have obstacles such as tree roots to block it, just a clear path. Because clearly the team with no obstacles is going to win, right? Of course not Kelly. Instead what will happen is the team with the obstacles will do their best to kick each of the students posing as trees or “not quite” lean down far enough to crawl through legs so I end up with five students bruised and the other side hasn’t even begun running. Point not proven.
I do not know how to prevent the chaos that happens whenever we do something fun. Today we (my environment class) planted our pepiniere (tree nursery) and I couldn’t believe how egotistical and undisciplined they behaved. All trying to steal seeds from each other and me, all jumping in front of the other. Where does this behavior come from? Is sharing really something that is taught rather than something instinctually understood? Sometimes I think it is a reaction to the way they are treated at home since there they are of the age that receives the least benefits and the most chores. The babies get disgustingly pampered, the papa’s alternatively are able to take the most for themselves and the mama, who is the cook and handler of all things worth wanting in the home, does a good job of keeping herself fed and happy alongside the days chores. It is these middle kids who get shirked, they receive the least protein or side dish (though plenty of rice) and the most trips to the water pump. In the classroom they are treated much the same: the teachers are always ordering them around to weed the school ground, sweep the floors, or even fetch the water for the laundry they have decided to bring to work that day. My nine-year-olds get yelled at, smacked upside the head, and put to work everyday. So perhaps they see me, who always acts more like a buddy than a disciplinarian, and feel that they are let out of that environment. They never neglect to take the opportunity to go nuts.
It might sound like I am being a pushover. However, my ability to stay relaxed and kind to misbehaving kids is practiced and purposeful. I think kids should have the freedom to create their own dynamics. So often adults interfere within the play of children because they see that they find something distasteful. I can relate to that; I always feel irked when I see kids engaged in physical fighting. But plenty of people would prove that this is natural. And who doesn’t like a good wrestling match among friends (my buddies and I used to play “street fight”…)? When I see it, I try not to react to my bias and overanalyzed thought that these kids are showing violent behaviors.
But it is still hard to see kids act selfishly and thoughtlessly towards each other. I don’t know how to teach them the value of respect, besides showing it to them. This method, as of now, has not worked. Yet I still resist the seemingly midevil practices that the other teachers use to gain it.
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