Culture shock in the schools

Alright I don’t know if I actually want to post this, lest I seem like I’m complaining, but hey, my people love complaining. I also hesitate because that last part sounded a little offensive. I could delete it, but I’m trying to write an honest blog, right?

Anyway!

When you get ready to join the Peace Corps, people tell you all about how hard it’s going to be. You read about how hard it’s going to be. You day dream about how hard it’s going to be (just me?), and by the time you get on the plane, you think you know what the hardest parts are going to be. You think you’re mentally prepared for things like host families, illness, bucket laundry, homesickness, language learning, or any other Peace Corps horror stories you might have heard of. I was mentally prepared for all this stuff, and I think I’ve approached these struggles with as much grace as I could muster while my lavalava (wrap around/tie on skirt) is falling off, and I’m suddenly remembering I was SUPPOSED to wear shorts under this thing.

Being aware these challenges were coming made them easier to handle. Knowing I might get a crazy host family helped me love my normal host family so much more! Knowing that I was going to grunt and gesture like a child while trying to learn the language made it less embarrassing.

Here is what I wasn’t prepared for. Teaching is hard; school is REALLY, REALLY hard. I used to think: I’m a (future) teacher. I have experience in schools. I survived volunteering, practicum and student teaching in some of the toughest special education classes and was challenged every day.  I loved it. People who have never taught before do fine as Peace Corps teachers. Sure it’s not going to be easy, but what do I have to be worried about? Bring it on!

After talking with other volunteers, we realized that teaching here is hardest for people with experience and a passion for teaching. Everyone warns you about the culture shock you will experience as a PCV, but if you’ve spent any time in the classroom, we should warn you about the culture shock you will experience in the school. That’s why I made a list of things that gave me the biggest culture shock and brought me the hardest times in the schools.

•  Supervision of children- there is none. Physically, my classroom is isolated from the other teachers, so at lunch time, it’s just me and 40 year 1-3 students playing “how can we annoy Peta?” The winning tactics include: Sneaking in and destroying my posters, standing at the windows and doors while screaming my name, or (my favorite) sneaking behind the building to the window right next to my desk and peeing on my wall. Possible Solutions? ET (early termination of service- or quitting). Just kidding! Totally kidding! I’m currently cleaning up the library (located right next to the staff lounge), so I can relocate and the nearby teachers can help me by beating the children when they ignore and terrorize me (Kidding- kind of. Continue reading for further explanation).
• Beating of children- I think I’ve mentioned before that my school is actually pretty good about this. They don’t beat. However, kids kick the crap out of each other and that’s totally ok! One of my classroom rules is “hands to your selves” and it gets enforced only seventy five percent of the time. No teaching would get done if I corrected it every time. Instead, one kid slaps the other across the head and everyone else yells “hands for you!” Eh, they’re close enough. But depending on the school you go to, corporal punishment might be an issue. As teachers, we tend to value children, and have “mandatory reporter” engrained so deep in our brains that if we see a kid with a bruise, warning lights go off in our heads and flash out our ears. You HAVE to let that go. In the past, volunteers have ETed over it, because it’s hard to wrap your head around. My kids are covered in cuts and bruises and some of them are caused by parents. I have to let it go. The best I can do is ask people not to do it around me. Basically, you have to ask your inner moral fiber to step back and be reasonable. You’re not going to change the culture. In my class, I lead by example. I talk to children about it in hopes that they won’t do it when they have children. It’s hard to compartmentalize you’re sense of right and wrong, but you can’t let it ruin your teaching.
• No materials- Last week, I had LITERALLY no materials while I was subbing classes of 40 children. I brought in a book from home, and found some scrap chalk in a pile of old stuff and did a spelling bee activity using that. Most the time, you will have access to printer paper, some poster boards and large sheets of brown paper like the stuff you can get as bags at grocery stores. My school has a computer that does not work because of viruses and a printer with no ink. The copier is nearly out of ink too. And the power goes out a lot, so I can’t rely on technology like that every day. I like the way having limited supplies makes me stretch and grow as a teacher, but that being said, some days, I would rather tear my own eyeballs out than try to create something out of nothing again (too much?). Fine. Some days I’m tired and wish I had more books or a binder full of worksheets like an American School.
• Not being entirely sure what to teach- Peace Corps does give you training and you do some assessments to help you figure out where to start with your students. However, you get to site, and it’s kind of overwhelming. There is so much stuff I could be teaching, but what order should I teach it in? How much time will I need to spend on new skills? How do I know if my kids are ready for making predictions? They got letter sounds, what next? I got the impression from our training that term one is like a practice term (no one came out and said that, but considering the most useful training wasn’t until after term one, I’m convinced it’s true) so I figure the beginning is just time to experiment and get to know your kids. No pressure.
• When am I going to teach?- I hardly ever actually get to teach. The classroom is my happy place, and I hardly ever get to see it! When there are assessments, I don’t teach all week. When teachers are reviewing for assessments, I don’t teach all week. Sometimes, we have Peace Corps trainings or meetings we miss school for. This week is literacy week, and I’m helping teachers prepare instead of actually teaching. Some days, we sit in the staff room and have tea all day instead of teaching. I could try to be a good example and teach anyway, but instead it makes me look like a fiapoto “wannabe smart” and the other teachers resent it. My point is, this is a slow paced island, and schools fit into that image well. Get ready to slow down. A lot.

I really hope this didn’t come across as a list of complaints. I just really want any teachers preparing to be volunteers in Samoa to know what challenges they might face and how hard it can be. My biggest culture shock was in the school. But at the end of the day, I still love it. Children here are different but they’re still children. School is hard in ways I didn’t predict, but I love it for reasons I didn’t see coming. So be warned. Be prepared. Be ready to laugh and yell and throw your shoes at the wall (you know who you are) and say mean things in English that the kids won’t understand (guilty). But don’t worry too much. It’s what you came here to do. I figure that if I can teach here, I can teach anywhere.