LYNN
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
LYNN
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
Today illustrated the spectrum of resources in Zambian education. We visited the American International School and got to see how the children of the wealthy get educated in Zambia. The disparity between the privately funded American Int’l School and what we witnessed in the government funded Special Needs Resource Center is staggering. The truth is, I know this is no different from a similar spectrum in the United States where we, also, have a staggering disparity between the schools for children of the wealthy and those who have the very lowest government funding for education. Just because we have a similar situation, though, does not make it okay.
The American International School was a dream come true. The resources! I admit I was enchanted by every school supply, every classroom, every teacher, the student work, and the environment of AIS. Each room was filled with inquiry-based centers, naturally sourced manipulatives, play centers, BOOKS, alternative seating, open floor plans, beautiful learning furniture, warm and inviting rugs, reading nooks, and technology. With every step we took deeper into this education Wonderland, I fell in love with the dream of what a school could be. The Art Teacher spoke with us, showing off his astounding art studio classroom. More supplies than I could dream of for an art classroom! The space was bright and organized with plenty of space to work. He had two boards filled with how his lessons corresponded with what the children were learning in other subjects. This is something I always did in Room 123 – make our art and crafts projects coincide with books, lessons, seasons, and holidays, as a form of enrichment. To see a Specials Teacher (art/music/phys. ed) do the same as part of his curriculum was a tiny bit mind-blowing for me. He spoke to us about recent art projects where the children took technology “trash” (old cell phones, game controllers, batteries, etc.) and turned them into “electrical assemblage” robot animals. Likewise, the living creatures constructed from trash like toothpaste tubes and spray bottles, or out of things found in nature like the spider that was assembled with sticks, seed casings and twigs. They were incredible! I loved listening to this teacher talk so passionately about his art program. He was an artist with a private studio whose day job was being an art teacher in this wondrous school. I wanted to go to school here myself. I wanted to TEACH here. …I wanted every child I’d ever known to have the opportunity to go to a school exactly like this. That thought nagged at me, triggering a thought that didn’t fully develop until evening when I’d had time to reflect. I’ve literally never seen a school like this. I’m positive there are schools like this in the States, probably right in Buffalo, but I haven’t seen them personally. What if all schools WERE like this one? What if THIS is what education looked like around the globe? What if THIS was the Universal?? As the day progressed, I had the opportunity to observe lessons and connect with the ENL teacher (English as a New Language). This teacher was an American “ex-pat” of 8 years. She and her husband ended up staying in Zambia and she loves teaching here, with little intention of going back to the States. I found myself wondering if I could do that. If I wasn’t so connected to my grown children and my parents, yes, I would consider doing what this woman was doing. I also got to sit in a Grade 2 classroom, talking at length with the teacher, Andrea Mwulala, the only Zambian teacher with whom I met at AIS. She’d taught in multiple countries, living in Slovenia, Scotland, Tanzania, Kenya, and Cambodia, returning to Zambia to retire, and to open an NGO, Twende Education for All, dedicated to developing education/schools for children suffering from cancer and sickle cell hemophilia. She shared with me her devotion to this pet project. I wanted to talk to this woman forever. Already she’d welcomed me into her classroom (which I’d wanted to observe because I wanted to compare Grade 2 here with my extensive 2nd grade experience in WNY). I’d observed her gentle teaching but firm control of the classroom. I’d talked with her about her teaching philosophy and the challenge of literacy with pupils who did not speak English as their first language. She shared a brilliant thought on why she does not allow erasers in her classroom – so her pupils can witness their own growth when comparing work early in a unit or the school year, with their work at the end of a unit or school year. Her utilization of colored pencils for the children to make corrections, and simply striking out the incorrect word or thought with a simple line, then writing their correction seemed ingenius to me. It’ss something I plan to implement in my future classrooms. Those things alone made talking with Ms. Mwulala a gift. But then hearing about Twende Education for All, I couldn’t believe my ears. Look at this woman giving and giving to her country. She said she came back to Zambia to retire, but now she needed to help fund her new endeavor, and so she took this position at AIS. I wanted to learn more. I wanted to work side by side with this woman. She’s the epitome of a critical thinker and a problem solver. I was inspired and galvanized by Ms.Mwulala. She’d told me to call her Andrea, but I already had far too much respect for her to do so. I also got to sit in on Kindergarten Math Centers with a lovely teacher from New Zealand and her assistant teacher, a gentle man from South Africa. As I chatted with the children, most with charming accents from Australia, France, the U.K. and Canada, I played with math manipulatives alongside them. I moved from center to center to see how these Kindergarten Math Centers were run and what content they were learning. It was fairly similar to what I experienced in WNY in a first-grade classroom. Their math skills were advanced, I thought. I was blown away by their writing samples! The neatness and the ideas were on a mid-2nd grade level. The spelling (very phonetic) was easily commiserate with the end of first grade writing. My initial thought was that these children were gifted, but immediately upon thinking that thought, I knew I was off-track. I had too much to absorb at this wonderful school to ruminate further on this, but I was able to pick up the thread of this thinking during our bus ride back to Twangale Park. We’d gotten into the habit of going around and giving a brief comment on our emotions on whatever we’d just experienced that day while riding back on the bus. Most were gushing about how amazing AIS had been. Many of my cohorts were effusive about how smart and advanced the students were at AIS. Then Daeyana said she was (I’m paraphrasing here) upset and a little angry at the extreme advantage of AIS compared with other schools in Zambia. Yes! That was exactly the thread of thought for which I hadn’t yet found words to match my emotions. Disparity. As others contributed their brief thoughts to our bus conversation, more words began swirling into my thought process: resources, advantages, potential, and opportunity. The children at AIS weren’t more smart/intellectual/advanced than the average Zambian child. They simply had more advantages, beginning with the mere fact of class size, which was generally less than 20 students in each AIS classroom. In addition, I noticed that most of the teachers at AIS were from a different country, and that most of the Zambian born adults were support staff. There was also a dearth in children of color at AIS, with upwards of 80% of the population being Caucasian. The director spoke of a very minor number of scholarships to this school. Judging from the Kindergarten and Grade 2 writing samples I’d seen, the children of these wealthy parents had the opportunity to see various countries and travel throughout Zambia to Victoria Falls and other cultural places. These parents had time to spend with their children doing homework, reading, doing enrichment. These parents had financial means allowing them the gift of quality time with their children. On the opposite end of the spectrum, were children who attended government funded schools where class size ranged from 50-100 pupils in a single classroom. These less fortunate children were often left in charge of younger siblings even if their age was only 8, 6, or even 5 years old. We’d seen this every single day as we drove through the streets of Lusaka, teeming with parents trying to eke out a living selling oranges, avocados, or charcoal balanced on their heads, weaving through traffic in search of consumers for their product. These parents were too busy trying to provide food and shelter for their children to have time to worry about their education. There were simply two totally different worlds of economy, influencing nearly every aspect of parenting, and it would obviously affect most children. The bottom line is this; virtually every child in the world is born with the same potential. The simple difference is opportunity. You can read more about the NGO Twende Education for All here: https://rivaltimes.com/the-little-school-of-andrea-mwalula-a-smile-in-the-abyss-of-childhood-cancer-in-africa/ https://blogs.ibo.org/2018/03/29/providing-schooling-for-students-in-hospital/ https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/zambia/zambia-children-cancer-cant-attend-class-classroom-comes/
1 Comment
Judi F
7/14/2023 05:45:37 pm
Thousands and thousands of miles from home and you find your happy place. The differences and the likenesses are striking and you convey them so I feel as if I am there with you
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHi! I’m a mom to 3 boys (all in their 20s now) and graduated this May 2023 with my Childhood Education degree. I’m thrilled to be going to Lusaka, Zambia to teach at Libala Primary. As a life-long learner, I’m eager to learn about the culture and education system in Zambia, where I’m certain I’ll be learning far more than I can possibly teach. I can’t wait to bring a little Buffalo, NY to Lusaka, and then take a little Lusaka back to my future classroom in Buffalo, NY! ArchivesCategories |