06/21/12-Realizing The Back-to-Basic-Basics Method

We had come into Africa expecting that we will be teaching at a much more remedial level in comparison to the American level. Expecting and realizing are two different things.

As I presented my lesson plan for week 1 for a Junior Secondary School Yr1 (JSS1, equivalent to US 6th grade) I was put in check by our Salone1&2 Resources that my plan was far too aggressive and that an entire term (3-4mos) can be spent on discussing JUST the number line and introducing decimals and fractions would blow them out of the water.

From my observation at Kakua JSS, the lack of textbooks and worksheets, prevents the children from taking work outside the classroom for further practice. They spend the entire period scribing the text that the teacher writes on the board into their notebooks. Rote teaching methods is the standard here in Africa. The students just memorize everything. Actual comprehension and information retention after their WASCE exams is probably unlikely, and that's if they even pass which most of them don't.

That is the goal for SLs Ministry of Education is for PC to come in and incorporate our American teaching methods in the hopes to promote stimulating comprehension of content which should in turn improve the amount of students passing their WASCE exams.

The level of comprehension and critical thinking skills becomes more evident as I spend time with Emelia, my 13yr old host sister. She is in JSS1 and currently learning French. She has taken copious notes yet she is unable to respond when I greet her and ask her how she's doing in French. She is only capable of opening her notebook and reading what she has written down, content comprehension is highly unlikely.

I had her practice her English reading and comprehension by having her read the contributors section of my travel magazine. She reads English fine but when I ask her questions and I try to engage by explaining to her in Krio that the snippet she read was about a man who takes pictures for a living and I pointed to the article with the pictures he took. She was unable to make the connection. Unfortunately, she is the product of a school system that does not engage in comprehension and critical thinking.

I understand that this is due to the lack of resources and properly trained staff. This is the reality of a post-conflict educational system. This is what we were sent here to do.....to help fix this......open up their world a bit.

I have to keep this in mind as I begin to prepare my lesson plans. And as daunting as it may seem for me to possibly handle a classroom of 120 students, I will most likely be giving them something that they would have never received from their traditional leaning methods.

And as for Emelia, I am closely working with her day by day teaching her little things here and there. I talk about where I come from which resulted in an impromptu world map drawing, holy shit it was horrible with lots of missing bits, but she enjoyed it b/c I was able to show her how far I traveled to become her sister. And now she can point out where Sierra Leone is in the continent of Africa. And I drew her pictures of the 4 seasons in America along with how to say "Hello" in many places all over the world.

For the short time I've spent in Bo so far, I have yet to officially teach in a classroom but I feel that just being here and talking to people, I am already educating. Both children and adults ask questions about America like "If it rains in America?" "Is there thunder & lightning in America?" "If I am American then why is my skin brown not like the other opotos?". Then I get to explain to them that Americans come in many different shapes and forms and there are many different skin colors and many people who come from different ethnic backgrounds.

Even the smallest impact makes the the idea of me vigorously fanning myself naked in my bug hut and hiding from the giant cockroach that I was unable to kill in my room worth it.........well ok, not the cockroach part b/c it's fucking huge and disgusting as hell (thank god they don't fly here). But you get the idea, and as disgusting as it might be THAT is not a good enough reason to go home. "A de manage, ya"

Imma find you one night and I'll kill you with my fucking slipper you dirty disgusting cockroach bastard, ew you're so gross!