3/01-8/01
Hello friends and family,
Ever since I arrived here, I’ve wanted to talk about what it is that I do for work here in Costa Rica. However, it has taken me a long time to write about this, because I’m never quite sure what we four gringa volunteers are doing here in rural Costa Rica. I think we’re here to help the impoverished people of this rural Costa Rican community in whatever way we can. My main job here is to teach English as a Second Language. I teach first through six grade in the public schools, private lessons in our school, and one adult ESL class. I also teach music and environmental education. I probably put in seventy-hour weeks, but a fair amount of those seventy hours are spent lying in a hammock looking at the Iguanas in a nearby tree and talking to Sarah, the other volunteer from England.
Sarah and I are the new English teachers. We walk to the public school after regular school hours and teach the kids English.
Our first day teaching Sarah and I walked to the school and admitted to one another that we had no idea how to teach children, and furthermore weren’t too sure that we even liked them. We entered the classrooms, which are open-air rooms with bars on the windows. The rooms have cement floors, and well-used wooden desks, but lack posters, computers, or anything beyond the essentials. As Sarah and I entered the classroom, most of the students left. The students aren’t required to go to the English classes that we offer. I didn’t take this personally because how many children would choose learning English over playing with their buddies after school? I wouldn’t have either if I were them.
Later…….
Over the course of about 8 months there were many frustrations and a few rewarding moments teaching the kids.
Third grade has been my greatest triumph and greatest defeat. For the first three weeks they came to my class, but they didn’t learn a thing, and I couldn’t control them. On the third or fourth week I nearly gave up on trying to teach them. However, right before one of my classes, I came up with a system for controlling the class. The system was that if they behaved and worked they would receive a point, and after they received four points, we would spend the class going for a walk in the rainforest. I went to class, told them the new system, and a miracle occurred. Suddenly the classroom was quiet, the desks were lined up in a straight line, notebooks and pens appeared before me, and glory be- I had the power.
For over a month I was able to teach them ESL through nature. They were learning things like, “the fish swims in the river.” I would take them on walks in the rainforest with a Costa Rican guide, and the guide would teach them about conservation. Many of the children had never been on walks in the forest. The parents consider it a dangerous, forebidden place. During one walk a spirited nine year old, Alba, looked up and said in Spanish that she never wanted to cut a tree down again. She had learned some conservation fundamentals.
Unfortunately, the students’ motivation eventually dwindled. One day I came to class and they looked up at me and said, “No Vamos a Ingles,” (We’re not going to English.) At this moment I lost all motivation for being here and asked myself, “why bother?” Why were we here trying to teach these kids something they didn’t want to learn and with no support from the school or parents. However, I think teaching must be what it’s like to be a parent; no matter how bad it gets, you’re still morally obligated to continue.
The next day I went back to teach my third graders, and their attitudes were awful again. I told one of them that if he didn’t stop the horseplay, he’d have to leave immediately. The boy looked at me and yelled, “Nunca, Nunca voy a recibir Ingles,” (I’m never, never going to receive English.) When he left I tried to resume with class. Then, I noticed that rocks were being thrown through the window into my class. I looked out the window and saw the student crouched in the forest. I was so pissed off. I told my good students to stay put and I ran to the director of the school ranting in broken Spanish about what the kid was doing. He looked at me and said that he didn’t understand what I was saying. I made an exasperated noise and he followed me as I pointed to where the boy was hiding in the forest. I tried to continue teaching as I saw out of the corner of my eye that the director was chasing the boy through the forest.
After this incident we decided to have a meeting with the director to figure out a way of getting better support from the community and the school, or to consider the option of not teaching the kids after school. After the meeting, we decided to send a note home to the parents asking them if they want their child to receive English and telling them that if they do, they will need to reinforce attendance. This caused a breakthrough. Many of the troublemaking kids never came back, and a new batch of well-behaved, motivated kids started coming. They were really sweet. One little girl told me that she hadn’t been coming before because all the bad kids were in the class. Evidently my prior batch of boys consisted mainly of the kids that liked to get into trouble after school. They used the English class as an excuse not to come right home after school and have more time to play around before going home.
All in all, this job is rewarding but tough. It’s been hard to stick to it lately. Often times I’ll be having a hard day and just want to pack up my bags and leave, then one sweet kid will look up at me with big brown eyes and hand me a Guava or a flower that he or she picked for me. Then I think that maybe I can stay for just a little longer.
Hope everyone is having a great summer.
Laura
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