Since I work in primary schools, they come up a lot in conversations with people from home. I think it will be useful to give a better picture of what they are like.
The school day starts at 8 am here, has recess from 10 to 10:30, or 10 to 11 if the director feels like it, then break for lunch from 12 to 3, and the afternoon session from 3 to 5. That’s 5:30 of teaching time each day. Class sizes range from 40 to 120 per teacher. About half of the students in the schools here don’t have desks to sit at. It has been officially forbidden to beat students, but I have not seen a classroom that did not have a belt in it. Mostly students get hit for misbehaving but I have seen them being hit for getting an answer wrong, which is just horrible on top of awful. Also awful is that up to 5th or 6th grade all the lessons are just repeat-after-me rote memorization. Later grades are a little better, but the trend continues. This leads to primary school students saying “Bonjour Mama, Bonjour Papa, comment tu t’appel?” (Hello mother, hello father, what is your name?) whenever they see someone who they think only speaks French (me). The same thing happens with high school students studying English, only it’s “HowAreYouFineThanksAndYou.” That is one reason why I am really excited about my environmental clubs; they will give the students a chance to participate in interactive lessons. Of course, it’s easy to criticize the schools but there are several factors that play into the situation: unmanageable class sizes, an unstable government, a governmental policy of moving teachers around to different villages without their consent, lack of materials, etc. I don’t think I would say that the kids here fit the stereotype of “all the kids in Africa who are desperate for an education,” but with a system like this I could see why. Certainly, I am thankful for the public education system we have in the U.S.
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Thanks Zach, That helps. I am subbing tomorrow and I will make sure Kim reads this. I am also bringing her a pic of the 5th grade classroom with 116 students. I wish American kids understood what a privilege they have. The attitude and behavior in American schools would wear out the belt! As the guest teacher from China once told one of my ADHD students, "You lucky you not in China!"
Fozz,
Your talk about the type of discipline that is used in the schools over there reminds me of our convo about their treatment of animals... Clearly, not as horrific, but in some sense, the concept the same??
I find it interesting how your perspective of our American education system may change upon seeing other educational systems of another culture... Clearly, our organizational abilities to educate mass numbers in a organized systems seem to be sound... but as mom's post indicated... the unruly behaviors and ability to really deal w/ them in class seem to lack....
While I do not support the notion of "spare the rod, spoil the child" - is it a system that you see as being effective over there? The methods of discipline seem to be vastly different in most areas of the world except ours.... as a whole, our culture doesn't condone corporal punishment, but there's no argument - our nation's children are prolly the most disrespectful.... While I am not supporting the specific means of their discipline, their results somehow beg the question of "what can we do to improve our system over here and get the same results?"
Furthermore, along the same lines, I can tell you now that getting those #'s in an American classroom in that kind of setting would create bedlam over here.... perhaps their ways are not so rudimentary after all.... Again, not necessarily in support of that type of discipline, but certainly an interesting observation.
Hi Zach! Happy New Year! One of my New Year's Resolutions is to stay on top of things and work on my communication skills! This is fantastic. I am really excited about sharing this with the students. I am going to have them read the blog about the school and respond. I hope you wont mind the questions that are going to come your way. I hope all is well and I will make a much better effort to communicate with you. I really look forward to sharing your experiences with the students. Let me know what you would like us to do on our end. I can't wait to see the students reactions to they way disapline is handled in the schools. They will be shocked. You will hear from us soon.
Kim
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