Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Developing Youth? Part 3, The First Three Months

So in my first three months in site, I decided to focus on teaching Tercero Basico, the oldest middle school grade (equivalent of eighth grade) since we were supposed to focus mostly on doing our diagnostic of the schools. I wanted to try to give them *something* of the program since they’d be graduating (in October), and also that way I would be able to start fresh with the complete program with all 3 grades when the new school year starts (end of January).

Sadly, I didn’t really get to teach that many classes to my Tercero students because in the months Aug-Oct, not really much class time goes one. The month of September was the month of Independence Day, which meant more time was spent preparing for and participating in the festivities than in class. Then at the beginning of October, the Municipality of my communities had their Feria, or town fair, so then there were yet more festivities to prepare for and participate in. Classes ended mid-October. In a couple of my schools, I only really taught 3 or 4 classes in 3 months (pretty sad).

But I definitely learned a lot. Some lessons that I thought would go great completely bombed. Others that I wasn’t optimistic about surprised me. The class of students that I thought I liked the least (they seemed to give me attitude and make fun of my Spanish) ended up being one of my favorites.

There were moments when the entire class would give me blank stares like they clearly had no idea what I was talking about. There were times when I would begin an activity I had planned and suddenly realize that I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain it in Spanish. (A highlight was when I was trying to kill 10 minutes at the end of the class by having them do the human knot activity --participants stand in a circle and grab the hands of someone else in the circle and then they have to work as a team to detangle themselves into an open circle, still holding hands. I had 4 circles of students with their hands grasped in the “knot”, and I frantically went around to each group to try to explain what to do next, but they all just looked confused. And I ran out of class time.) There were times when I assigned them an art project, and they would spend half their class time measuring and drawing a perfect rectangle to frame their art, rather than working on the actual project (Guatemalan students are absurdly, painfully meticulous with their schoolwork). There were times when I would assign them group brainstorms, and 20 minutes would pass and their paper would still be blank. There were times when I came ready with a fun game that I’d played with kids in the US, and the students would be too shy or self-conscious to play.

But then there were times when I gave them a problem to solve or a scenario to analyze, and their head would be together as they discussed it earnestly and passionately. They were times where we would play a dinamica (like a warm-up game) and all of us would be cracking up and they would beg me for another. There were times when they would all crowd around me to proudly show me their work.

One of the biggest lessons was a final class report I assigned to the students of my big institute, mostly at the request of the Director. I presented it 2 weeks before it was due, re-presented it a week before it was due, and then when the day arrived for them to hand it in, not a single student (out of 95) handed it in. Also, at the last minute my co-teacher decided that my part of the class should be 50% of the grade, which completely surprised me. In none of the other institutes was I expected to assign grades yet, and I hadn’t been taking consistent attendance or giving much homework because I didn’t expect to have to grade the students. So all I had to go on was this report I had given them… and because these students were in their last year, suddenly it was partly my decision whether they graduated or not… WAY more responsibility than I was expecting or prepared for in my first 3 months. And NO ONE handed it in when it was due! So I spoke to them again, reiterated its importance, and told them it was worth half their grade. The next day to my relief a big stack of reports were turned in. But when I took a closer look, I realized that most of them were just copies of someone else’s work. Probably about 20 students actually wrote the report, and many of those students printed out several copies to give to their friends to hand in. This was especially ridiculous because the report consisted of very individual questions, such as “In your opinion, how is your self-esteem?” and “What are two goals you have for the future and what is your plan for achieving them?” OBVIOUSLY (I thought) each one would have to be different. But somehow the students thought they could get away with it. So now I was REALLY distraught. I came in and talked to them again and told them that if their work was the same as another person’s I couldn’t accept it. So I gave them yet another chance to turn in the report. Finally, the message sunk in and most of the students turned in their individual work. (Some of them were amazing, full of art work and thoughtful insights into themselves. Most were just a brief, fragmented sentence for every question with bad grammar that didn’t have much thought put into it.)

Really, I don’t blame the students. I see this incidence as a sad reflection of the education they’ve been given and the standards they’ve been held to. Obviously if a vast majority just copied work, they’ve gotten away with it before. And these are the students that graduated, most of whom probably will not continue studying.

But one of the best things that happened was when the 12 students from my smallest institute showed up at my house one morning (this was after classes had ended but before the graduation ceremonies) after having made the 45 minute walk in the rain from their community. They had come to give me an invitation to be the “Madrina” for their graduation. The Madrinas or Padrinas (literally, godmothers and godfathers) are either teachers the students found inspiring or important members of the community. These “Godparents” are expected to get each student a gift or a sum of money and make a speech at the ceremony. I was very touched that they had chosen me and that the whole class (so what if it’s 12?) made the long walk to deliver the invitation to me in person (even if I did make the same walk each week to teach). The Graduation Ceremony was a success, and especially important because it was the first ever for this institute (which is only 3 years old). I did feel honored. I also made it through my speech alright, even wishing everyone a good evening without looking at my notes (“the mayor and his corporation, representatives of the Junta Directiva, the director and faculty of the establishment, male students, female students, parents of the family, gentlemen of the music, and general public, good evening… a lot harder in Spanish!). And I bought them each a double-sided picture frame. In one side I put the “inscription” I wrote about the graduation and the other I left empty for the pictures I took on graduation night. Needless to say, I spent hours painstakingly cutting out construction paper as a matte for the picture and “inscription” and putting in perfectly in place. Thank god there were only 12.

There were certainly challenges in my first three months, but they only made my successes and breakthroughs that much better. Really, it was the perfect time to start. We had three months to “dive in” and get a taste of the reality of the institute—of the teachers, students, directors—and what it’s like to teach a class of Guatemalan teenagers (in my case, Guatemalan indigenous teenagers whose distant second language is Spanish). Then, thankfully, the school vacations rolled around, so we have 3 more months to get our feet under us before it all starts again. And when the school year starts, I will be teaching around 600 students in 3 institutes in the afternoons (each class once a week), and an English class for 3 elementary grades one morning a week. I also hope to have a girl’s group that meets regularly, and possibly in the future a drama club… but we’ll see. Oh yes, and I want meet regularly with the existing Women’s Group, stay involved with the Catholic youth group, in addition to holding workshops with parents, training teachers, and organizing extra-curricular activities, such as career fairs and field days!! Whew, it’s exhausting just to think about. Who knew it was possible to be such a workaholic in the Peace Corps? But I have no doubt it will be rewarding. It already has been, and supposedly this was the “hard part.”

Developing Youth? Part 2, The Program

The idea of our program is to prepare the middle school kids for adulthood by giving them some more practical skills than they may get in their other classes. (The students are in middle school, but most of them are US high school-aged because students are often held back or take a year off in between grades for one reason or another.) The program focuses on themes such as self-esteem, effective communication, goal-setting, careers, decision-making, sex ed., gender roles, etc. All of it is very participatory—such as team-building activities, problem-solving, working on teams, coming up with skits. Most students find these types of activities challenging because they usually spend their days listening silently to the teacher lecture or reading from their text books or copying information. They don’t get many opportunities to practice the critical thinking, communication, and creativity that participatory methods require, and they are often very shy and self-conscious. But they also seem to really like the classes because they’re a welcome change. Plus volunteers get an automatic rock-star status, being from the US, so that helps (at least for a while, until the glow fades).

Part of our job is also to train teachers in teaching our program with the idea that eventually they take it over. We’re never supposed to teach without another teacher in the classroom and the goal is to be co-teaching by the end of our two years. This can be really difficult because many teachers see the volunteer as someone that will take over the class while he/she can take a break and get other stuff done. We’re also supposed to give teacher trainings and workshops with all the teachers to help them develop participatory education methods, train them on teaching sex ed., and hopefully work in some training on professionalism. Part of our job is also to hold workshops with parents to give them the skills and info to better support their children.

Developing Youth? Part 1, The Situation

In all my blogging during my first three months in site, I’ve come to realize that I haven’t really talked about what I actually do—what my job and primary program is.

I am in Guatemala’s Youth Development Program, which is only in its second year. A “pilot” group of 5 volunteers came before my group of 15, and they’ve only been doing it for a year. So it’s a brand new program in Guatemala, and its success is still to be determined. We work in the middle schools, or “institutos básicos,” teaching a “Life Skills” program.

(From here, I am going to break it up into segments because there is a lot to be said about the Guatemala education system and our program and my personal experiences so far… so hopefully in bits it will be easier to get through!)

The Situation

The reality in Guatemala is that about half of the population continues onto middle school. The other half drop out after between one and six years of elementary school. Only about 1 in 10 continue to high school (or “diversificado”), and a very small percentage (maybe 2%) go to university.

What’s maybe even a sadder reality is that those few years of education that most Guatemalans receive is often less-than-quality (to put it nicely). There is very little regulation and standardization of how the schools are run and how professional and motivated the teachers are. My schools seem to be better than some, but even so, often a teacher won’t show up for class, leaving the students to just sit around for one or several class periods. (Other volunteers have told me stories about showing up at their Institutes to find only the students sitting around waiting for teachers that never showed up.) Even when they do show, many teachers will just read from a text book or have their students copy from one. Using class time to grade papers is the norm. Typically, teachers and directors (or principals) show up a half hour late. The students are often there before them. School is also canceled for the slightest reason. For a month leading up to the Independence Day Activities, school went from 1-3 or so (instead of from 1-6:30), so the rest of the afternoon could be dedicated to practicing for the parade. I’ve also seen class cancelled for soccer games. Teachers will abandon class to have meetings. Any holiday (and Guatemala has a lot of ‘em) is reason enough to cancel school or hold celebratory activities in place of class. Really, the amount of time the students actually spend learning is sadly little.

Of course there are exceptions. In all of my institutes, I have seen some teachers that are very professional, that obviously put a lot of work into their lessons, and that really value class time. But unfortunately, they’re a minority. This seems ridiculous considering Guatemala actually has an excess of people who are trained as teachers. The high schools here are all focused on some sort of career training, and the vast majority of them are for training teachers. So almost everyone that goes to high schools ends up being trained to be a teacher… which means that most of them won’t actually find a job teaching.

With so many teachers looking for work, you would think that only the very best would be the teaching in the middle schools. But this is not the case. Most middle schools (and elementary schools) are managed by a co-op of parents (usually all men) called the Junta Directiva. The members of the Junta don’t have to have had any formal training or background in education. They just have to be influential and respected members of the community. But that doesn’t mean (in my opinion) that they’re equipped to hire and evaluate the teachers. Many times teachers get their jobs through some connection with a member of the Junta. Often the Junta will take into consideration the input of the Director, and sometimes they rely on the Director completely to make their decisions. But that can mean that an Institute’s Director can have incredible power to set the tone and standards of an Institute… which can be good or bad depending on the Director. It can also mean that some Institutes are corrupt because they are run almost single-handedly by corrupt Directors with almost unbridled power (who may choose to skim some money off of the budget for him/herself). Also, it’s the director’s discretion as to whether or not they get in the classroom to observe the teachers and get an idea of how well they’re teaching. In some smaller schools the Director is also a teacher, which doesn’t allow time for observation. I have yet to see a Director enter a classroom to check on the teachers.