Yesterday I went to Deme for the last time with Jon, Andrew, and Nick. All the Deme teachers, who are infamous in our Volunteer house for their laziness and disinterest in actually teaching, seemed to be in a day long "meeting," that involved napping outside, so most of the classrooms were full of teacher-less students. Nick and I were assigned P4 (roughly equivalent to fourth grade).
I haven't done much formal teaching in the past (just a little tutoring), so I was excited to get my feet wet. I quickly learned that it's extremely difficult to teach almost every subject (possibly excluding math), without adequate materials. The small classroom, that held nine students, had three very old chalkboards, a box of chalk that never seemed to make any visible marks on the boards, two posters (one that explained the roles of the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches, and one that simply listed skin diseases: leprosy, scabies, fungus, eczema, chicken pox), and a pile of workbooks. A few of the students had pens, and one had a pencil. There was no paper, no crayons, no markers, no reading books.
The kids all wanted to start the day with "Creative Arts," so we all took out the Creative Arts workbooks, and Nick and I started going through them. Crocheting lessons, pottery lessons, crayon resist lessons. Nothing we could do without the materials. Finally Nick ripped out a bunch of pages from his journal, handed out one to each kid, and we all drew our favorite animals, taking turns with the pens. (After I drew an example elephant on the board, everyone just drew elephants). Then we tried to do math. The math workbooks contained such exciting lessons as: "Follow the pattern- 434, 433, 432, 431, ..." and "Count in multiples of ten from 0 to 80." I quickly abandoned the workbooks (for their sake and my own), and tried to teach fractions by drawing banku and mango on the board and "cutting" it into different numbered slices. That got us a little further, but the language barrier definitely created some problems (I'm still not sure they understand that 1/4 is bigger than 1/8, even though 8 is bigger than 4).
We ended the day with reading, which they do out of their science workbooks. The page they were on was titled "skin diseases" (the poster suddenly made sense), and each paragraph was about a different type of skin disease they could get. Everyone took out their books except one boy. I asked him where his was and he said he didn't have it, so I gave him mine to use for the lesson. The rest of the class immediately jumped up in dissent, shouting "No! No! Do not give him book. He can't read!" It's no wonder the poor kid can't read. He's never given a book! Not sure how they ever expected him to learn. Of course I gave him mine anyway and told him just to try following along while the other kids took turns reading about peeling skin infections and boils and fungi (I kid you not, I had to spend five minutes listening to a little ten year old try to sound out "anti-fungal cream." It was simultaneously hilarious and incredibly frustrating. They have absolutely no comprehension of what they're reading). When it got to his turn, I asked the boy if he wanted to give it a try, and he surprised me with an enthusiastic "yes!" It took him ten times longer than the rest of the students (and he only got through the sentences by sounding out the few letters he knew, and his friend whispering the rest of the words to him), but he clearly wanted to know how to read. I'm sad to think about how he will get lost in the system. Students simply repeat grades until they pass out and move on, but each grade teaches essentially the same things, and it's incredibly easy to slip through the cracks and move on before you're ready (the first three questions of the final exam, which we saw one of the teachers preparing, were: "1. Design a bumper sticker that says 'God is great,' " "2. Which of the following did God create?" and "3. How many times a day do you pray?" If they've had these exams before, I'm sure they're not exactly motivated to learn about government systems and grammar rules). There also isn't an expectation of success in school, and no motivation to study or do well. Whether the teachers are jaded from years of frustration with the system, or simply don't care much about teaching (it's sort of a status symbol to be a teacher, and the pay is comparatively very good), they are not doing a good job of inspiring their students or setting any example of where a good education can get you. Although that leads to the next question of what CAN a good education really get you here, and is it simply better to live the life of their parents who spend their days on the farms, but (at least from what I've seen in the past month), seem relatively happy (especially compared to the stressed-out, tax-paying, tv-buying American). But that's a conversation for another day.
Ultimately, I was really glad to get a little experience teaching, and despite the many frustrations of the day, really enjoyed working with the kids. With a little patience and creativity, learning can go on anywhere, even a paperless, teacherless classroom.
Today is my last full day here, so I'm spending most of it saying the important goodbyes. I'll really miss everyone I worked with from Bankas' clinic, most noteworthy Livingston, Kindom, Salome, and Innocent. Not to mention our artist friend (Yao), our contact in Deme (Charles), the seamstress next door (Praise), the shop lady down the street who supplied us with endless amounts of bread, coke, and biscuits (Fida), and of course, all the other volunteers at Ghana Act. Thirty days came and went, and somehow in that short time, I discovered and carved out a home here. I will miss it greatly.
Until next time,
Anna
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