School is and has always
been a significant part of my life. I am currently preparing for my
thirty-fourth "first day of school". As we prepare for students
to come back to school here in the United States, I find myself thinking back
to the time I spent with teachers in Haiti. I knew that we were going to
visit a school or two. I knew that it was summer and the students
wouldn't be in school, but it would be neat to see Haitian classrooms,
etc. I was truly curious about their schools, curriculum, standards, etc;
I had no prior knowledge about education in Haiti.
First, Haitians do not
have FAPE--free appropriate public education. I know there are kids all
over the USA that do not appreciate the opportunity to go to school. But
for the first time in my life, I was looking at kids who do not have the
opportunity to be educated because their parents cannot afford to pay for
it. There are not publicly funded schools in Haiti. The only
students being educated are those who are able to pay for it. Another
unique thing about Haiti is that you have to live near a school to be able to
attend. There are no school buses running routes and driving miles upon
miles to pick up students in Haiti. In my district, we have buses that
drive over 25 miles one direction to simply reach the outer limits of the
school district. Even in a country as poor and underdeveloped as Haiti,
the students were expected to wear uniforms. According to my
understanding, the wrinkled shirts I send my kids to school in would NOT work
in Haiti.
At the first school we
visited, the Haitian classrooms were indeed quite similar to American
classrooms. We saw calendars, backpacks, chairs, books, etc. The
walls were painted bright colors and displayed posters, etc. We also saw
and smelled a class turtle. The things we didn't see were air
conditioners, projectors, computers, etc. The basics of education were
clearly present. I would imagine that the American classroom in 1975 was
very similar to what we saw.
That first school we
visited was the school where Holly teaches Pre-K. This is also the school
that most of the Hopesters attend. They even have a class for deaf
students. We learned that the percentage of deaf people in Haiti is
higher than the US because of a lack of medical care. Many deaf Haitians
were born with intact hearing but later lost the ability to hear due to high
fevers. The students were learning English, American Sign Language,
French, and traditional subjects like math and science.
Holly
showing us classrooms at the school where she teaches
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We were also able to
visit the school in Jubilee. Jubilee is a much poorer community.
The community is actually in the dump. I'll have an entire post on our
day in Jubilee later. But the school, run by Americans, was again, quite similar
to what one would find in an American school several decades ago. From a
distance, the school reminded me of a motel. There were two stories with
doors that opened to the outside. Each classroom had a window that we
could peak into. We were unable to go into the rooms because Alex
couldn't figure out the pile of keys. We did get to go into the library
at Jubilee. Other than the language of the books, it reminded me of my
elementary library at the Gaston campus of West Rusk. The library had a
small section of Haitian Creole books. Alex said that Creole wasn't
typically a written language so the selection of books can be limited.
There were French books. And there were English books.
We also saw the office
of the Jubilee school. It was a large room with multiple desks.
While we stood there looking around, Lala, the lady running the school, came in
and opened a drawer to gather medical supplies. There will be more of
this story later. The important part was that the school office had
medical supplies, and I'm not just talking about a few band-aids and a phone to
call the parent to get the injured kid. Posted on a wall was the "to
do" list for the office staff. I didn't take a picture, but it had
typical reminders like "plan for Christmas event".
One of the projects that
we were invited to participate in was a brief professional development training
for the teachers at Holly's school. As a group, we consisted of
Karen Skelton (Montessori school expert), Amy Greer (physical education expert),
Kayla Tillison (math expert), and myself (sarcasm expert). Collectively
we have a lot of years of educational experience and variety. Apparently,
Karen knew all along...as in for weeks...that she was going to do some
presentations about the Montessori Model. Amy, Kayla, and I were along
for the support. All of us were knowledgeable about our own methods and
practices, but we thought the presentation was about Karen. On Thursday
night, Momma Jan, sat us all down in the orphanage to visit with us about the
training/presentation the next day. She shared her frustration and
struggles with the difference in Haitian methodology and her personal vision
for the educational model for her kids--The Hopesters. We sat and tossed
around a few ideas. Karen was excited and had hundreds of ideas to
share. Kayla, Amy, and I were panicked. We felt anxious about
sharing because we were unprepared and this was all happening in the next 10-12
hours. But we all agreed that we could support Karen and throw in an idea
when appropriate. Oh, and one more complication--we couldn't speak Creole
and the teachers couldn't speak fluent English.
The general idea was to
show the Haitian teachers how to incorporate more fun and therefore more
learning into their classes. Haitian schools are typically conducted in a
traditional "sit and git" fashion. The students participate in
rote memorization of many, many facts. However, Mama Jan felt as if the
students were sometimes missing the ability to think and transfer
knowledge. There are big tests in Haiti as in many other educational
systems. Her teachers had great success in getting students to pass the
exams. Therefore,they were hesitant to change their methods. She
said that prior attempts were met with phrases such as, "We don't have
time to do fun things because we have to learn these things."It was almost
comical to listen to the concerns. I've heard parents and teachers say
"We need to go back to memorizing some of the facts! These kids
can't do basic arithmetic, and they can't think!"
So Friday morning, we
had breakfast with the Haitian teachers. We learned that Mama Jan feeds
her staff breakfast each day. Kayla and Amy felt like I needed to step up
my morning routine at Northside. After breakfast we gathered in a large room
and began sharing some ideas. We started with a dice game called
Tensies. At first, the Haitian teachers were very reserved and quiet;
however, they quickly became competitive. It was such fun to watch them
cheer and yell when they won. It was also funny to watch them exchange
colors of dice after someone won several rounds (trying to get the winning
set).
Laughs
and Jokes about cheaters
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We spent several
hours talking about simple tasks that the teachers can use to challenge their
students to think as well as keep the students engaged in the learning.
We all shared specific examples that we have used with out own students to get
them moving and learning. It was so rewarding at the end of the session
to hear one of veteran teachers say that he was excited to try new things. He
said that he believed that learning could be fun. He went on to share
ways that he could incorporate simple items such as dice into his classroom to
make the student laugh and get excited about learning too. The morning
spent with the Haitian teachers was definitely a highlight of my educational
career.
It is important to note
that for this entire "conversation" Holly was having to translate
everything. She was amazing. We knew she was fluent in typical
conversational Creole. However, she was able to flawlessly transition
between Creole and English discussing curriculum and learning objectives and
crazy school stuff.
Here's brief video to
see the excitement of the game and listen to Holly communicate effectively
between both languages.
