At some point in October I thought it would be a great idea to have summer school classes. I got some key parents and teachers onboard with the idea then began the battle; the greatest battle that any Peace Corps Volunteer is faced with when offering to give classes: The battle against teaching English. It’s just wrong. I can make a list of 5 people off the top of my head who know I should NEVER, EVER, be allowed to teach English (my mom, Mr. Lang, whatever my college English teacher’s name was, Robyn, Tania). That’s just the 5 I thought of right now…if given enough time I can definitely think up more. Here’s how most of the conversations with interested parents went:
Me: Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I’d be giving summer school classes starting Jan. 15th from 10am-12pm for primary school students. We will have math on Mondays, science on Wednesday, and art on Friday.
Parent: Oh that sounds nice, when is the English class?
Me: umm. There isn’t English class.
Parent: What? No English class? How can you teach math and science and art and NOT English?
Me: Well [insert name of parent], you see I have my major in math, and I love art and science. These are the classes I feel comfortable teaching.
Parent: What? You don’t feel comfortable speaking English? How is that possible?
Me: No I speak my version of English fine. But I can’t teach it. It would be like me asking you to teach me Spanish. Do you think you could do that?
Parent: Yes, I speak Spanish. [Occasionally the added jab that they did help teach me Spanish]
Me: You may speak it, but can you write and form lesson plans, make up homework assignments, and figure out a way for the kids to retain that information?
Parent: No but that isn’t necessary. Just tell them what they need to know and they’ll write it down.
Me: Well I want these classes to be fun. If they’re not fun, then the kids won’t come. And I cannot make English fun because I hated English class when I was in school. So I will be teaching math on Mondays, science on Wednesday, and art on Friday if you are interested in sending your kid[s] please let me know. Thank you
Parent: When’s the English class?
Me: see you around. [Start walking away]
So as you can see it is a hard uphill battle to avoid the plague that is teaching English classes. Now I know that there are a ton of Peace Corps Volunteers around the world and in Peru that love teaching English—it’s the most rewarding thing they’ve done in their whole lives. Well that’s nice, but this Peace Corps Volunteer would rather have her tongue chemically burned again than have a structured English class. Note that I added a word there, a STRUCTURED English Class. I am, in my own way, teaching these kids some English. It was my compromise with the parents. While I would rather not, I have decided to teach the kids a little English. I’m using the English as a Second Language teaching approach. Teach them the words that are relevant to what we’re doing. So in math class we learned the number 1 to 10 in English and how to say plus, minus, and equals. In Science we learned how to say some animal names (and that being said I finally learned some new Spanish words). And In art we learned the color names.
It may not be the class that the parents wanted. But it’s the class that I wanted to teach. I’m getting a kick out of these kids, who thankfully, seem to be enjoying themselves. So much so that word has spread and my original class of 4 kids had doubled to 8 by the 3rd day of classes and I was told to expect 7 more students today which would put us at 15 students on the 4th day of class. Guess we’ll see how many are there when I show up for math today. We’re covering area. Well that wasn’t supposed to be a pun. I’m going to teach them about area as a different way to reinforce their multiplication skills, but it works. We’re covering area, making progress, moving along, and all that jazz.
Editor’s Note: So I only had 7 students in today’s class, but I will blame that on the rain…
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