So. Many. Things.
I’ve put off writing this post for a while because there are
so many things that characterize my teaching experience in Lesotho. The
education system is different. The culture of school is different. Too many
things that make up my job to fully explain my experience. So, inspired by my
dear friend Brittany’s blog Listing Lesotho (listinglesotho.wordpress.com),
this will be a post in lists.
The Good
1)
The students: They try hard, most of the
time, and they make me laugh. And they’re pretty adorable. Thank God, because
they also make me want to scream sometimes.
2)
My co-workers: generally speaking, they
seem to genuinely enjoy what they do and we have a really good relationship.
They’re also really supportive and positive about my teaching and are always
available when I have questions.
3)
My schedule: Mondays are MANIC because I
teach three double periods of English with only one break period. BUT I don’t
teach any other double periods for the rest of the week and I also don’t teach
after lunch. Also, schools in general have a half-day on Fridays. So,
considering that I teach English to three grades and life skills to three
grades, I feel pretty lucky about it.
4)
Class sizes: My biggest class has 35
students. Praise Jesus.
5)
Teaching life skills: At its best, it’s
sort of a holistic sex-ed class that incorporates self-esteem, identity and
sexual education. If you know me, you know that I love talking about sex more
than just about anything, and there are hardly any adults here who will talk
frankly with kids about sex, using condoms or healthy relationships. This despite
the fact that Lesotho has the second highest rate of HIV in the world. I’m more
into teaching it than English because it develops the whole person and its much more fun than teaching to a terrible test.
The kiddos also LOVE it; almost every day towards the end of teaching English
to grade 6, someone says “Life skills now??!!” I’m also starting to teach life
skills to the high school as of this week (intimidating, but important), so
that’s where a lot of my energy is going.
The Bad
1)
The system: a). In general, there is a
HUGE emphasis on the way things look and on keeping to the syllabus as opposed
to the content of what the students learn and on their degree of comprehension.
This creates an environment where, for example, kids fight over rulers so that
the charts in their notebooks have perfectly straight lines, but they can’t
write a paragraph or say a sentence with the past and present tense verbs that
are inside said chart. b) There is also a really bad relationship between the
ministry of education and the teachers and school staff-MOET doesn’t listen to
or respects the teachers’ complaints and the teachers don’t follow the
guidelines that MOET puts out. It’s a really vicious cycle, and in keeping with
the passive aggressive nature of Basotho culture in general, no one is having
frank discussions about it. c) It’s an almost entirely lecture/notes based
system, thanks to the British, even to the very young kids. And the teachers
wonder why students can’t focus or don’t understand things. My role as far as
English goes is to introduce some teaching ideas that are more
student-centered, which hopefully will be used after I leave as well.
2)
Students as workers: In the U.S., the
only thing that students are expected to do in school is learn. In Lesotho,
that’s only part of a child’s duty. Every student is at the beck and call of
any adult. So if, for example, you’re a grade six student who has just started
to take your final exam for the quarter but your principal comes in and says
that those students who haven’t paid their five rand for so-and-so must run
home right now and get it, you have
to do it. (yes, this happened, and it was infuriating). The same goes for
teachers’ personal items. My counterpart, who lives on the same mission that
the school is situated on, is constantly asking students to run to her house
and get the bag that she forgot, the papers in her house, whatever. God for bid
teachers lift a finger to get anything themselves. To say nothing of how
gendered the tasks are-if a room needs dusting or dishes need washing, girls
are called. If there is anything remotely heavy that needs lifting, someone
will call for a group of boys. Without fail.
3)
Lack of teachers: When I started teaching
at the end of January, the principal was teaching grades 3 and 4, there was one
teacher for 1 and 2, and one teacher each for 5, 6 and 7. At the beginning of
February, the grade six teacher left for another job and a few weeks later the
grade 7 teacher went on maternity leave. So teachers shuffled around for a few
weeks, sort of partway teaching those classes, which inevitably left the
younger grades (1-4) on their own even more than usual. Now we have teachers
for grades 6 and 7, but they’re both volunteering and I’m not sure how long
they’ll be around. The good news is that the word is out that we need teachers,
so we’ve been having small groups of recent graduates come to the school nearly
every day and deliver their resumes. I predict two months at least and then
some positions will be filled. ‘M’e Theresia (the principal) should really not
be responsible for two grades as well as doing her principal stuff.
4)
My principal: I like her as a person,
but she’s not a good principal. She doesn’t communicate what’s going on in the
rest of the district clearly and she doesn’t prepare for situations like she
should. She knew that the grade 6 teacher would be leaving for a different job
and she obviously knew the grade 7 teacher would be going on maternity leave,
and she didn’t prepare for either of those events at all. I was especially
pissed because the grade 7 students take exams at the end of the year that
decide their future, and both 6 and 7 already have a number of students that
have repeated.
The Ugly
1)
The look on students faces when they are
told, day after day at morning assembly, “remember to speak English at school!”
The look basically translates as: “You know I can’t speak English ‘M’e, this
isn’t helpful at all”. I empathize.
2)
Kids fighting, all the time: But it’s
kind of just how they play, and it’s hardly ever truly violent. They’re also
really big on running and telling the teacher EVERYTHING, even when it’s not
actually that painful or that big of a deal e.g. “Madame Mpho, Retsilisitsoe is
beating me!!” “Madame Mpho, Lerato stole my pen!” I’m now learning that it’s
not worth my while to try to attend to each and every issue, because they get
over so called “beatings” (hitting) real quick and somehow manage to find pens when they hear “I don’t care” enough.
3)
The library when the students are left to
their own devices: I’m happy that they’re excited about the books, but it
looks like a tornado came in. I don’t blame them though-they’ve never seen so
many books in one place and they’ve certainly never been inside a library. The
other teachers and I are slowly teaching them how to put the books back on the
shelves in the right way and the like. I know more about libraries and books
than anyone just by virtue of being in a lot of libraries and reading a lot of
books, so I was kind of put in charge of the book organization when we got the
donation at the beginning of the year. It’s fine for now, but I’m not
interested in putting more energy into it than I have to. My goal for the end
of the year is for it to be an entirely self-sustaining, student organized
place.
The Funny (a list of
recent quotes and events)
1)
6th grade boy: “Madam Mpho, I am
going to Australia next Monday!” Me: “Oh Cool! Give me a call.” Boy: “Madam I
am speaking English!”
2)
To practice letter writing (yes, it’s on the
syllabus), I had the grade six students work in small groups and write letters
to me telling me anything they wanted about them selves. Four or five of them
were signed, “your son”, at the end, until I laughed and said, “am I your
mother?!”
3)
Baby-makin’. To illustrate how a baby is made
one day in life skills, I had the grade six students (yes, they’re my
favorites, in case you can’t tell yet) role-play the entire reproductive
process. Lines of students facing each other were fallopian tubes, two clusters
of students were the eggs, an oval of students was the uterus, a boy was the
sperm etc. It was hilarious and SUPER effective. Thinking I might have a future
in sex-education.
**There’s a lot more of the funny, this is just what I can
think of right now.
Given the situation, though, it could be much worse. Some
volunteers have really domineering principals or tough relationships with their
co-teachers. Some volunteers have their teachers digging through their personal
belongings. One person doesn’t even have classrooms to teach in and conducts
all of her lessons outside (which often get interrupted by goats and cows).
Some volunteers teach upwards of 60 and 70 students. So I really am lucky in a
lot of ways.
Overtime I’ll get used to/learn more ways of coping with the
hard stuff and I’ll get clearer about my purpose. For now though, every day is
full of ups and downs, and I’m riding the waves.
