I’ve started books in each of my classes and juggling four books simultaneously is actually pretty intellectually stimulating. I never before realized or appreciated the important role of a teacher in explaining key passages and the larger themes of a work of literature. It’s fascinating. Oh, I’m actually juggling a fifth, Lord of the Flies, as I am tutoring one of the President’s kids in English. In addition, I might start tutoring the oldest in American History and/or American Literature. I know it’s more work, but I actually really enjoy those subjects...
Oh, and here is a picture of me teaching in my classroom called “Terrains 1.”
So, I continue to spend money. A week ago, I splurged for a Coke and a bonn bonn (23 gourdes), which is a little more than 50 cents. I used these for refreshments during our tet anba session on a quiet Saturday afternoon. "Tet anba" is Kreyol for turning something on its head, turning it upside-down. Anyway, it’s the fun name we volunteers came up with for our idea of having intellectual discussions every few weeks. The idea was to have people present all sorts of topics and then have discussions and question and answer sessions afterward. I volunteered to lead the first and we discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for over two hours. Not everyone stayed until the end, but it was a pretty enjoyable experience. I prepared an outlined version of the history and then we just talked, asked questions, and talked some more. A very enjoyable experience in my opinion.
As you can imagine, teaching consists of moments of great joy and moments of great frustration. Joyful moments include some pretty excellent class discussions on Power and Justice. It really is wonderful to see the gears turning in the minds of my students. I take great joy when I can teach them something that they don’t even know in French. For example, half of my Rheto class was not familiar with the term “capitalism.” Even when I had someone translate it to French, they still were clueless. Craziness. I don’t know what they teach in their social sciences classes, but it seems to be lacking something. Anyway, we had a fun class trying to explain this and other economic concepts that are essential for understanding Animal Farm.
Oh, and I am now in charge of recycling here on campus. We are trying to recycle plastic bottles, scrap metals, and aluminum. This, as well as having students collect trash outside the school, are only tiny ways in which the school tries to fulfill its mission to be stewards of the environment. There will be more on this in the weeks to come.
Last Saturday, we went to a very nice hotel for some drinks. College football and Harry Potter were playing on dueling flat-screen TVs at the bar. It apparently was the same hotel that President Clinton stayed at when he was here for the Economic/Investor convention just a few days earlier. I’m still trying to figure out a way to get the President here at LCS. I think one of my next writing assignments will be to write a letter to President Clinton explaining why he should come to LCS. Maybe this will help…
Right, so last week one of the volunteers briefly left our humble home to return to the U.S. for her brother’s wedding. When she returned, she returned bearing gifts. Chocolate never tasted so good…
Finally, the range of English skills in my classes is both challenging and frustrating. On quizzes I gave last week, one class had three kids who received perfect scores (20/20) while in the same class one kid got a 7/20 and another a 9/20. Sigh. I guess this is why I’m available for tutoring 3 times a week…
I'm going to continue the trend of sharing my student's writing. My last assignment was to write a persuasive speech from the perspective of Toussaint Louverture in 1790. Toussaint Louverture was one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution. Here is the speech by one of my best Philo students.
“Liberty or Death”
"Dear fellow brothers of suffering. There was a time when the world was without vices. At this time, men were living together in equality. As human beings, they were living freely in mutual respect. As they were evolving, they became selfish. Everyone went in search of personal interest.
Since this time, men have become destroyers of men. The strong are oppressing the weak. Some pretend that they are superior to others. This is the excuse in which they have put us under the humiliating yoke of slavery. We are treated as beasts. This is unfair, we are not beasts! We are human beings! What differentiates humans from animals is their ability to think. Don’t we have brains like them? Can’t we think as they do?
As human beings, we have rights. And we must fight for those rights. Don’t we have the right to live in freedom? Don’t we have the right to express our thoughts? Now, they take our freedom. Don’t we have the right to fight for it?
It has already been one century that we have been submissive to the oppression of this ferocious exploitation. We are working to make the oppressor rich. As a reward, we receive the whip. They don’t feed us, the only thing that interests them is the result of our works.
We cannot stay in such a situation! This is why we must fight! Because we want to live. This is the time to stand up! Dear comrades! Haven’t you had enough? Aren’t you tired of being slaves? Aren’t you tired of being oppressed and ill-treated? Let’s join together to make a call for freedom. Tonight, we will fight! Tonight, I will be either a free man or a dead man. We will kill! We will kill! And we will live! Liberty or death!"
(Myriam)
I think I'm going to teach Gandhi and Martin Luther King's concepts of Non-Violent Direct Action very soon...
Peace
ps. Here is a student, nonchalantly carrying a machete to cut the grass on the soccer field.
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