Challenges ahead

I preface this blog, with the statement that I am not trying to be critical of Sierra Leone or the teachers. I am just trying to paint a picture for you of the challenges that are here to overcome. I love Sierra Leone and its people, and there are so many amazing and beautiful things that are in this culture and I have learned so much from them. But as we all know, every culture has problems that need to be addressed, and education is of those for Sierra Leone.

I have to admit that there are several times a day here, when I think, “What am I doing here? Is this important? Are my ideas simply American ideas and they way that education is done here is just the way it is?” Often times I feel alone in this pursuit to create a better education system. Sometimes when I bring up ideas to the teachers they just look at me like I am a crazy person and then continue doing the things the way they were done. After I while, I start to think that maybe I really am crazy.

Yesterday, when I was visiting one of our schools, one of the teachers had to step out of his classroom, and so I took over the lesson that he was teaching. It was the 5th and 6th grade and the lesson was on the millions place value and the teacher had given the students 2 problems to complete on their own. As I walked around looking at the student’s papers, not a single student had gotten one the problems correct. And most of them weren’t even close to getting it right. So I went back and tried to reteach it and started with the numbers 1-100, which most of the students did not know. I even discovered that some of the students didn’t know numbers 1-10.

I talked to the teacher after school about what I had seen and his 2 responses concerned me. “Well, thats how they come to our school, there isn’t anything that I can do about it, and if they don’t know it by know they will never learn it.” They concerned me because there was a lack of concern for the fact that the entire class did not understand anything that was taught or understand that if the students don’t have the foundation that is needed to learn the more complex skills. The reason why this was such a concern to me is because this is the attitude of almost every teacher in our schools. They have not taken it upon themselves that this is their responsibility to educate these students. (And again, that is not every teacher. We have some good teachers that really are trying, but they themselves haven’t been able to complete their education, but really are trying to help these students)

Yesterday was a particulary hard day for me where I just felt discouraged by what I saw. And was wondering if change will ever happen. And wondering where even to continue trying to help. I

However, today was a better day, I felt better after a goods night sleep, but was still questioning what am I doing here? This evening, I had a conversation that I know was ordained by God to help reconfirm that I am doing what he has asked me to do. One of the staff members of COTN came down to talk to me because he was concerned about our the children education. He had been to visit some of the home children to help them with their studies and he noticed so many of the concerns that I have as well. He brought me the children’s books to show me exactly what was happening. (our children struggle to read, they can’t write properly or for some at all, if they can read they don’t comprehend what they just read). He was astounded by the level that our students are at, and was wondering how the teachers cannot see these things. He said that he now understands why I bring up certain issues to the teachers and why I am so concerned. And all that took was 15 minutes of sitting down with the kids.

It was so nice to be able to talk to a Sierra Leonean openly about all of my concerns for the school and for him to see these problems as well. It confirmed that I am not trying to bring America here, but that these are things that need to happen for children to be able to learn.