Last Wednesday we invited parents to come visit the school and inspect the work their children are doing. I was pleasantly surprised to have about a dozen parents come in to see me (more than I saw at my HS in VT last year). They spoke a mixture of English and Otjiherero, so I had another teacher interpret sometimes.
An older gentleman came in with his daughter who is in one of my classes. Through another teacher, he asked how she was doing. I said fine, and added that she sometimes talks a wee bit much in class. He then encouraged her to follow my directions and obey all the teachers. He then told me that he wanted a good education for his daughter for when he passes away. As easy as that, I was reminded, as I too often am, of how frequent death is here, especially to what I consider young people. It is hard to schedule activities for weekends, because there are funerals almost every weekend. It is a tough life for most people here, and HIV certainly has not helped things.
All in all I was impressed with the level of involvement and caring shown by the parents/guardians that came in. Many people here truly see education as their key to escaping a life of poverty and uninspiring work. This frustrated me last year in the US, as I often encountered an attitude of entitlement rather than appreciation.
Of course, this was followed on Thursday by a parents' meeting where only 4 showed up, but hey you can't win them all.
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Spending a year teaching English and Math in Opuwo, Namibia.
Please note that this blog represents my personal views only. It does not express the views of WorldTeach, the United States Government, Putuavanga SSS or any other party.
2 comments:
That was the great thing about teaching in Korea, parents were incredibly involved and spared no effort or expense. That was also the terrible thing about Korea, some parents tried to run the classes.
and this is why I teach ESL, before the students have become too "American".
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