There are various programs that come to help our school improve the education for learners: David Rattray Foundation, MIET Africa, Wildlife Foundation, EduPeg, Columba 1400, Soul Buddyz, Isandlwana Lodge, banks, Kingsmead College, even the good ol’ United States Peace Corps. Most of these outside organizations are not funded by the district nor were they requested by the district. Rather, these organizations have donated a lot of valuable services and materials on their own: books, program instructions, DVDs, documenting systems, math boards, reading kits, paint, school uniforms, pencils, chalk, erasers, cabinets, the list goes on and on. Many have funded retreats and trainings for educators and principals. Some have even gone so far as to hire a local individual from the community to oversee that the program is correctly implemented. Every once and a while, depending of the organization, the program supervisor arrives.
The supervisor never observes the teaching schedule, doesn’t even care to ask about the bell schedule. The supervisor demands to talk to various people because the visit’s schedule is very tight. The teachers must be pulled from class because the supervisor is priority. He/she waltzes in dressed in nice clothing and decked out in accessories. The supervisor demands to see this and that. When the logs are blank, he/she asks, “Have the teachers been using this?” The response is a strong ‘Yes!’ Lie. Follow-up questions, logical questions, are fired out of the supervisor’s mouth: where are the materials kept, why is there so much dust on them, why is no one using them now when the schedule states someone should be using it at this moment? A few lies are caught and someone is cornered about the lack of implementation. The educator and/or principal is talked down to for a conversation that makes me want to walk into the office and slap the visitor across the face and yell, “Why don’t you take the time to see what they actually need before you plop some useless item in their hands and come around to scold them for not utilizing the tool?!” I withhold and many apologizes are uttered by the teacher or principal taking ownership for his/her failed program until the supervisor says, “Don’t you understand how much effort we’ve put into this? You must also care!” Perhaps the visitor walks around the premises, judging our teachers left, right, and center. Then, finally, at the end of the few hours, he/she gets back into a car to drive off to go live in a nicer place and work in an office.
Do we all do this? Do we put on a sparkling smile and pretend to use materials that we never touch? Do we try to prove that we are fully utilizing what has been given to us? Do we try to show our boss, supervisor, or superior that we are doing our job? Or is this a rural, South African thing? I remember a fear of my boss judging my work, but I don’t recall lying about using materials. Why does this happen here? It must come back to this organizational stimulus towards these schools. It must lie in the fact that to use these resources is not in the job description.
And I, heavily influenced by the Peace Corps trainings I’ve attended, still ask: what’s the point of all of this stuff? Why do we have fancy books and loads of colored paint when a) the educators aren’t using it, and b) the basics are not being covered as is? I’ve looked for reasons why the materials aren’t being used. I’ve arrived at the conclusion that it lies within the fact that the educators rarely prepare much before the lesson, the new materials requires much more effort, the teachers are not confident in their teaching skills to try something new, and they simply aren’t interested. Culture teaches South Africans that children don’t need to be entertained and that they should be teaching themselves. The teacher is merely there for facilitation of learning. The learners are responsible for their own knowledge and baby-spooning information and varying teaching styles is just gibber gabber that soft Americans believe to be true. Besides, who among these children is going to a) pass their matric b) go on to university and c) use much of their education anyways?
I’m telling you, I don’t know the answer. I try to be here on a daily basis and ‘transfer skills’ (Peace Corps language that feels impossible). I still ask for money and supplies from time to time. Am I at fault? Sometimes I believe all I can do is SHOW others how I do things. If they care to imitate me, I welcome the opportunity. I am not alongside someone showing them how to do their job; how prissy would that be? They show me how to be like them, I just add little things here and there, hoping to display my motivation and longing for doing my job well.
I haven’t tallied all the meetings where principals tell teachers how much they are failing to do their work, are expressing disappointment in failed efforts, are communicating that only one teacher has met a district deadline… It’s nearly every week.
This is where I serve. It isn’t difficult because of the living conditions or the lack of resources. It’s difficult because sometimes those things that lead to an excellent education are here, you just won’t see it until you unlocked a dust-filled room.
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