Profesores y Niños

In San Pedro I teach two groups of second graders, 2A and 2B.  They are such a cute bunch and really eager to learn and be with us.  I love being with the kids and I see so much promise in them.  Although these children do go to school, the school system is very different than in the United States.Here the students come from about 730 am until 130 pm.  After that the students go home for lunch and stay home the rest of the day.  From about 2 until 6 another group of students attends the school.  This means that students do not have much learning time.

In one of my classes there is a girl who sits at the front of the classroom.  She does not talk very much or interact with the other students.  One day we asks the students to write a number (That we assigned to them) on an index card in Spanish, English, and draw that number of objects on that card.  At first we gave her the number 20, which is fairly difficult.  After she sat staring at the card for 5 minutes we changed her number to be the number one.  When we asked her why she couldnt even write the number one, she told us that she doesnt even know how to write it in Spanish.  Its so sad to hear that some children here dont even know how to write in their own language.  The rest of the students were all trying their best (despite the minor errors) but she was so affected by the lack of understabnding that she gave up.

In each of the classes there is a professor and a student teacher.  In one of my classes the professor is never in class.  One day Samantha and I (my teaching partner) went to our class and passed by the teacher who was talking on his phone outside.  The next day, the same teacher came into our class, took his bag and left. Its hard to see that even a lot of the teachers dont care about their job only their children.  In my experience the teachers only seem to care about the money and not as much about their children.  Being immersed in the different types of schooling here in Guatemala has made me so grateful for the education that we recieve in the United States.

Emily Goldstein-McGowan