Lazy Days of Summer and a Request

It’s taken a year to appreciate the island’s education challenge. It is only now that I am beginning to grasp the obstacles that plague improvement. Recently, I have been spending more time with schools as well as helping establish an after-school program. This has illuminated the problem. If a child is having difficulty reading some parents feel ashamed. It’s not a topic for discussion. Much of the culture is rich and passed down orally through dance, song and poetry. It is a visual culture and I wonder if that makes it easier to hide the problem .


Peace Corps organized a four day mid-service training which is lovingly referred to as MST. It was held last week. All the volunteers from our group reunited. There are thirty of us left out of the original group of thirty-nine. We are living on four islands: Saint Vincent, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Saint Lucia. MST was held on Saint Lucia. Peace Corps reserved rooms for us to stay in and organized meaningful training sessions. I learned a lot during these three days.


Our service is more than half complete. I have often heard volunteers say, “the second year goes so fast!” I am beginning to understand that statement. I have spent a year building projects and creating work. Now, suddenly I must refocus. The holidays are coming and after the first or second week of December island time slows to a halt. My last three months here will be spent winding down and handing over work ensuring sustainability.


There is a new frenzy going on privately within my brain. This frenzy is occupying a great deal of time in my daily thoughts. Many Peace Corps Volunteers in my group are just beginning to toy with a new word: “E x t e n d”. Since that word will likely not be part of my service vocabulary, it is increasingly apparent that I must focus on what I want to achieve in the time remaining. So, let me take you on a journey through the organizational thought process inside my head.



As I sit in the conference room on the second day of MST I ponder which training track to choose. There is an open session with the Country Director and a session on Project Management. However, as I read through the agenda the third session is intriguing: Remedial Reading. The session is in another building. I walk outside around the pool and courtyard which is filled with flowers and patches of grass, to the cabana. (Photo compliments of Diane’s Facebook)


The room is small, intimate and dark. We immediately begin opening the drapes to let the light in. As twelve of us sit around a large square conference table, I notice that most, if not all of them, are either teachers or volunteers who are working with children.


As I listen, I hear stories from volunteers who teach remedial reading and I begin to understand this problem is larger than I originally understood. Many children in the secondary school cannot read. I’m not sure how they are passed through the system but I know we have a similar problem in the United States.


I’d not pondered the complexities of learning to read until now. Like math, the learning process builds. A child who does not recognize the letters of the alphabet cannot learn the sounds of letters. A child who has not established a solid foundation of sounding words phonetically cannot become fluent.


One volunteer relates a story when she was working one-on-one with a third grade child. When she asked him to make the sound of a “C”, he smiled and said, “meow”. That very answer was one indicator of his ability and helped her diagnose his reading level. He associates pictures but not sounds. It is a cute reaction and an amusing story now, but I think it will lose it’s appeal when this child is twenty or thirty years old.


As I listen I think back to a few days ago. I jumped on the bus. I headed for the after-school program classrooms in the next village. The first hour is focused on completing homework. The facilitators are struggling because so many of the children are having reading issues. There are forty children and I wonder if the four facilitators are equipped to deal with this problem.



I continue listening and participating in the remedial reading session I realize many in the room seem to have a level of understanding far deeper than mine. There are so many people and experiences from which I can learn. I picked the right session. I will suggest a similar session with our after-school facilitators and the woman who is running this session.


Children are bored during the summer. I see them sitting on their porches as I pass. “Hello Crystal, how are you today?” I say. “I’m bored”, she answers. “Good Afternoon Yvette, what’s going on today”, I ask. She responds, “nothing, I’m just waiting to see if the library will open”. Sometimes they come to my house and just say “teach me”.


Children recite key learning together. They read things together or are read to by the teacher. They copy things from the chalk board into their notebooks. From my observations much of what they learn is rote memorization. I have observed some teachers who gather their children around them and facilitate discussions and evaluate problems and situations which invoke critical thinking. I think these teachers might be the exception.

When I taught Strategic Management at Monroe College last year, my students were terrified when I told them I did not test using T/F and multiple choice testing methodology. Instead, I would evaluate their learning based on how well they understood the material and evaluated problems: the dreaded essay. They had been trained to memorize and preferred this familiar testing method.


It frightens me when I see so many people in my village who have no work and not much to do. They talk about village tourism, kayaking and fish processing. However, I’ve come to believe that, although these things may have merit, it is the children that need attention. Literacy, critical thinking, social skills, motivation and building confidence in the up-coming generation will be required in order to build new business opportunities and sustain an economy. The after-school program is one such vehicle designed for just this purpose.


What happens when school is in recess this summer and the Crystals and Yvettes are once again sitting on their porches hoping that the library will be open that day? What happens to the sense of community that the after-school program is achieving when summer comes?


Looking at the village as a system I began thinking of easy to implement and easy to sustain activities. I have three ideas. First, help launch a chess club; second, create a book club for those that can read; third, create a family movie night and discussion.


There are good films with good life lessons. I just ordered four films: The Wizard of Oz, The Clique, Ratatouille, and If the Earth Were a Village. I’m looking for books that are 80-100 pages, second grade level, and fairly cheap to start a book club. The government has loaned us a couple of chess sets and I will try to identify a teacher to launch this project.


In addition to this, I have been asked to create and deliver a one-day training session for the teachers working at the schools for disabled on the island.


If I can focus my time on these few things and be successful at just one of them, then I will declare success!

So here it is. I have a request

• If you, my friends, have suggestions of books that would be suitable I would love to hear your ideas. Reading level would be first and second grade; no more than 80-100 pages.

• If you want to donate a book once I have identified the title please let me know.

• If you are feeling particularly generous during the holiday season and have used DVDs that are collecting dust, suitable for family viewing and have life lesson messages embedded into the story, feel free to donate them.

• Finally, if you would like to donate one card game "SLAM", they are about $6, I need ten games.We will use them in the after school program as a spelling and reading tool.
  

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, send me an email at karenjmccarthy@gmail.com, or contact one of my children.