Challenges

Every Friday the students leave right after lunch, so the four of us have dedicated those afternoons to reflecting with the sisters. This is only our second time spending a few hours with them talking, but it has already been immensely beneficial. The weeks are busy, so I’m thankful to have this time set aside to bring any concerns or thoughts to the table about how things are going.

We had a really great talk with Sister Teresa yesterday. We sat around for a couple hours talking about cultural differences within the educational system.

Over the past three weeks of teaching, the four of us tutors have recognized a great disparity between the students’ ability to know and understand the material. This ranges from the chiquitas (little ones) to the eldest. All of the classes have great difficulty taking the information that they receive and apply it. For example, if we’re doing grammar exercises then they won’t think about what a noun is; instead they’ll refer to the previous example to copy it. If the noun comes first, they’ll assume that the next example also begins with a noun.

The students also lack investigative curiosity, something that’s highly valued within the US educational system. In class the students rarely ask questions or challenge an opinion. At first I was willing to blame my accent/slow Spanish and my strange new face. But after three weeks, it’s hard to believe that their apprehensions are only temporary.

It’s incredibly frustrating to have a lecture, do activities, ask questions, and still not have any feedback or sign of understanding. Over time I hope to be able to find ways to better manage the class and get them more involved, but how does someone instill critical thinking skills? (Especially considering the ten years they spent in schools where memorizing is the only necessary skill.) I don’t even know where to begin.

This cultural difference is so strongly integrated into how the country functions, not just concerning education. When we first started classes we all asked our students what they wanted to do after they graduated. Many wanted to be teachers or agriculturalists and others said they wanted to be engineers, journalists, psychologists, or doctors. I’m inspired by their aspirations, but disappointed by their attitudes towards actually achieving these dreams. It’s as though they’ve accepted their lives as is and don’t look for other possibilities. There’s a disconnect between the education that they’re receiving and their everyday life. For me it is strange to see the youth of low economic status who don’t take advantage of the opportunity to change the course of their lives. Sure, some may become leaders of their communities, but I get a feeling that most would be okay with going back to the aldeas, having children, and just living their lives. In no way am I putting down this choice to support a family and be content with little. But I can’t help but wonder why they aren’t challenging the norms of society. Oppression and acceptance has been infiltrated into all levels of the culture.

Even when it comes to violence or death, there’s such an apathetic attitude. Every Monday I ask the students how their weekends were. This past week the younger girls responded with “bad”. They explained that someone died in their aldeas. They said it so nonchalantly, as if it were part of everyday life…most likely because it is.

So this is the challenge that we are faced with: Of course, it is to inspire our students to make social change with the education that they are receiving. But more importantly, it is to understand how poverty, oppression, and violence have become a normalcy, how we can find the balance between what we’re used to (growing up in a country where everyone has rights that they are entitled to and fought for) and a new culture and attitude.

I feel very overwhelmed, but confident that we will challenge ourselves and the students so that they can start to consider their dreams as more than just dreams.