I stayed up late last night creating a mini-lesson plan to share with the kindergartners today. Basically, I assumed that they would find our lives interesting so I told them a bit about us and passed pictures around. I´m not sure that they were exactly riveted though the girls did seem to take to the picture of our cat Sami. There was quite a bit of yelling and hitting as the kids ripped the photos out of each other´s hands. However, I think that was more indicative of their usual mode of communication rather than a sign of their thirst to learn more.
For me, today was an interesting mix of emotions. I am very happy that I can be in the classroom and contribute anything positive for these children. However, today was very sobering in that the reality of what these children experience every day is setting in. La profesora is fairly impatient and her method of teaching is not one that I have come across in ten years of classroom participation. I would like to reserve judgement, however, my initial impression is that her style is extremely ineffective. I spent a good chunk of my day attempting to get to each child and help them with their assignment before la profesora came to them and screamed at them for getting it wrong. I soon realized that though the children have memorized many English words, the majority of them do not know their alphabet in Spanish.
Supplies in the classroom are pitiful so I purchased my own whiteboard pen and copied a map of South America for each of the students. After my fascinating discussion of our lives in Florida and showing where that is on a tiny world map, I passed out the South America map and had the kids color in the country of Peru. It was at that point that I realized that none of them know they live in Peru much less South America. Even more perplexing, I´m pretty sure la profesora was on about the same level as the kids though she could at least pinpoint Peru.
Even more disturbing for me is the fact that the children are very violent. They hit and kick and throw things on a regular basis. And when I say hit, I mean as hard as they can, repeatedly. La profesora ignores the activity until it gets in her way and then she comes down hard, sometimes hitting as well. I have decided that I cannot stand for the boys to hit the girls, it´s just not tolerable. In a culture where machismo is still alive and well, I won´t be witness to the sowing of the seeds of violence against women. I am not naive enough to believe that my stance will make much of a lasting impact on the children but even if it is only my own boys that see such behavior is not tolerated, that´s fine.
At several points in the morning, I did manage to communicate that we are not to hit, we share, we say please and thank you, and we use our words to solve problems-generally with encouraging results. I guess the most depressing thing is knowing that with no reinforcement, things will go back to more of the same as soon as I am gone. The reality is, I will be the one most touched by this "selfless" volunteer trip.
On a brighter note, this afternoon, we went to visit some ruins from the Wari period, a pre-Inca empire which lasted from 500-1100 A.D. I was so appreciative that we were able to do this as there is so much emphasis on the Incas yet they were only in existence for 100 years. The Waris were the ones that wore boards on their heads to mold the skull so that the forehead was like a ski slope. They were an advanced society that had aqueducts and even mastered (sort of) brain surgery. With our trip to the ruins, Wyatt and I also got a chance to go horseback riding while Christin and Eddie perused the traditional Wari-style ceramics in the town of Quinoa. Now we are back home and I am trying to scam some laundry soap off of one of the other housemates so I don´t have to head out to la tienda in the rain. So far no luck. I think I will try to teach the kids the Hokey Pokey in Spanish tomorrow even though I am well aware that it will descend into chaos in short order. But at least I will know the song in Spanish, something that I am sure will shine up the law school applications a bit.....
Jenny
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