a bit more learning

Today marked my last day as a volunteer for "English Opens Doors," a government sponsored program to improve English education in public schools. While it was a great experience I definitely have mixed feelings in regards to how the past months went. Mostly in what I learned and how I view education here. It definitely opened my eyes to the disparity of education as well as the overall lack of structure and organization that seems to plague many institutions here. In this school the girls honestly ran free and there appeared to be little the teachers and administrators could do to control them. Just this morning three different girls sat on the floor and screamed across the room at the top of their lungs for about 5 minutes while the teacher sat at his desk and acted as it never happened. I haven't quite decided if he has just given up or if the girls really are so out of control that nothing he does will work. Still, it's hard because the girls aren't learning anything, most likely due to two causes. The first is that learning English is government mandated for all students beginning in the 8th grade. The idea behind this is that having a better proficiency in English will allow Chile to move forward in the global market and advance to the level of other countries. While this is a great idea in theory, it is always difficult to get kids to learn a language when they don't want to. Add a bad teacher on top of it (shout of to Ms. Lewis & Sra. Reeves!) and little actual learning occurs. This was probably one of my biggest frustrations working in the school here. I will preface this by saying that I only spent a few hours, once a week in the class and that I know I probably don't have a complete accurate view of what actually went on the rest of the time. But, this is what I saw and experienced. Little teaching occurred and hence little learning occurred. Countless times as I wandered the room offering help (while the prof sat at his desk as if hiding from the students) I got questions from students perplexed by the worksheet sitting in front of them. As I tried to explain the difference between how to express the idea of "more beautiful" vs. "smaller or fatter" I tried to understand why these students, even those who worked hard and wanted to learn, were having such a hard time. Almost each and every time I got the response that "he never told us." While I don't doubt that he did tell them and the majority of the class didn't listen it still is frustrating to think that the teacher had given up on these girls and didn't seem to care if they learned or not. These girls have no incentive to learn and the teacher has no incentive to teach. I asked several of them over my time there if they like learning English and sadly got a pretty negative response, ranging from "I don't understand what he is saying" to "I am never going to travel so it doesn't matter anyways." I think that it's absolutely great that the government is so committed to teaching these kids English. But I think that the first step really needs to be getting these kids excited about learning English. To get these kids excited about going to school. This would be where the disparity in the educational system comes in.

The education system in Chile is basically broken into three different pieces: public or municipal school, semi-public subsidized or basically charter schools, and private schools. As it has been explained to me by my family, in general, private schools are best and the public the worst. Though there are exceptions and there are some very good public schools and some less than desirable private ones. However, as is usual those who have the money to pay for good schooling do and those that don't often times suffer. That is definitely the case here and sadly when it comes to English education it is especially profound. It is even evident in my host family. Both Valentina and Jorge, my host sister and brother, went to private school all the way through graduation. Jorge, while I haven't ever had a full complete conversation with him in English, is supposed to be pretty close to fluent and Valentina definitely knows her stuff. Daniela on the other hand switched to a public school after like 6th grade and the difference of her level of English in comparison with her siblings is noticeable. For me it is sad to think that if English is the key for Chile to move forward in the world that once again the rich are moving forward while the poor are not. Obviously this is a problem faced worldwide, not just in Chile.

Despite my frustrations, of which I have more, I still had a fantastic time with English Opens Doors and couldn't be happier. The girls would absolutely some of the most amazing kids I have ever met. I was showered with kisses and hugs from the moment I walked in to the classroom until the moment I left. All they wanted was some attention, someone to listen to them, to hear their stories from the day or to listen to the poem they had finally learned. I don't know how many times I told them how to "say their name in English" or explained exactly where in the huge US I am from or fended off questions about why I don't have a boyfriend, or a kid (only in Chile) for that matter. I even had a girl ask me today what she should do about her boyfriend who cheated on her with one of her friends :S My goodness I had no idea what to tell her. How do you tell a 14 year old that in 5 or 6 years that relationship, boy and friend will probably be little more than a memory and that neither are really the type of people you really need in your life anyway. So yeah, I mixed it up a bit, and told her what I could. I'm not sure she was really satisfied, but then again I am not the girl you should be asking for advice if you don't want to hear something like that. I guess that the point of this ramble is that over time I have grown fond of these girls and am a bit sad that I won't be back to see them again.