Today was a day of mixed feelings. We gave our kids a homework assignment to turn in today: "in one page, describe your perfect day." A quarter of the class didn't do it and half the class copied off each other. It's very blatant coping, word for word. It's sad and humorous at the same time. The punishment for cheating is nonexistent. When we asked the teacher, Isaac, what the punishment for cheating was, he blankly stared at us. Cheating is just not a big deal here. Sadly, this mentality stays with them for the rest of their lives. If they weren't punished for cheating in school, what's going to keep them from cheating in other aspects of their lives? I'm definitely not saying their all cheaters, but cheating isn't necessarily looked down upon here.
Amidst the sadness Mike and I experienced because of the cheating, there was one bright star: Renna. Reading her essay after class today blew us away. She has great potential and we cant wait to help her grow in her writing. We're definitely going to be encouraging her to join the creative writing workshop.
So after hammering it into their heads that cheating is unacceptable, we began to introduce the setting of Charolette's Web. We found it more difficult to explain a farm than we thought it would be. Mike and I (and the rest of the team) have a huge obstacle: the language barrier. Even though all their classes are in English, they still don't understand us very well. It's our accents and the speed of our speech. It's quite a challenge to dim down everything we say into the simplest sentence possible, as well as slowing it down to a crawl. And after that, you usually have to repeat yourself several times , and sometimes they still don't get it. It pains me to see how many students have slipped through the cracks of the already poor education system. Me, Laura, Alex, and Pierce tutored at the library today (we're going to have tutors there everyday). I spent two hours with Porsche and Gloria on their math homework. They're in JSS (junior secondary school, equivalent to our middle school) and they were deeply struggling with simple algebra equations, such as: 2m+5n if m=2 and n=3. Porsche didn't even know how to start the problem. After two hours of intense tutoring, I'm not sure she made big strides. But when we finished her homework, she had a huge smile on her face and was very grateful for the help. Gloria said, "May God bless you always." I can't wait to see them again.
On the way home, I ran into two of my students, Victoria and Ama, and we had a pleasant conversation that made my day a little better. Now, me, Amanda, Kate, and Diana have parted with the group into Charles' home. We're enjoying it very much.
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