I have been spending all of my mornings (9-noon) with the kids at the Cuatro Community School, assisting however I can. There are three teachers and about 50 kids total (the younger ones attending half-day). It is an English-medium school, but the students speak Tagalog socially.
The kids who can already read and write are all working at their own pace, going through a series of workbooks in various subjects. As an educator, this frustrates me almost as much as it does some of the kids, because it doesn’t take into account their unique learning styles. Since I can’t change the system – bless them, they are doing a great job! – so far, I’ve tried just sitting beside the kids one at a time and talking to them about what they are learning, hoping to engage them a little more. They like the attention, and it’s so important for them to be able to make connections!
The “kindergarten” class reminds me a lot of the village school where I volunteered last summer in Tanzania. Thankfully, these kids each have their own set of notebooks and pencils/crayons to use, but the teacher is using the same style of teaching: emphasis on phonics and songs and copying letters and pictures from the board. Is this what we do in the American school system too?
