It is finally time to catch you all up on the things that have kept me so busy these last weeks! I have been living the dream in Sevilla, and I personally believe it is a good sign that I have not had time to write in my blog. However, I have received many complaints about the lack of new updates, so here we go....
As part of one of my classes, (Sociology: Social Justice and Global Human Rights) every student volunteers for a few hours a week outside of class.
For the past 2 weeks, I have been volunteering at CEIP Manuel Giménez Fernández, a public school for what we would consider Kindergarten to about 8th grade. I volunteer on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two hours each day.
The school is located in an area of Sevilla called the Poligano Sur, which is basically the equivalent of the projects in the States. El Poligano Sur is located on the outskirts of the city and was created in the 1970s in order to try and accommodate the surrounding slum population. It is an area known for poverty, crime, social marginalization, and a high population of people without education.
I volunteer in a classroom of kids around the age of 5. And let me tell you, it is no easy task.
First of all, the most obvious challenge is the language barrier. These kids speak more fluently than I do, and also use colloquial words that I am not familiar with. Moreover, they're 5, so most of what they say does not make sense anyway. I have so far gotten away with smiling and nodding my head, but a few of the kids have started to realize that I don't understand most of what they are saying (and they therefore have been making a fun little game out of talking to me about things that are probably inappropriate).
Another challenge is their capacity and motivation to learn. Because most (if not all) of them come from very difficult family situations, and do not have much support from their family (economically, emotionally, etc), many of them demonstrate a lower level of skills such as reading and writing.
During my time in the classroom, I help teach the kids how to write in cursive (they are currently learning the letter ´s´ ) and how to sound out words.
As I sit at the tiny desks, I usually have a small cloud of kids around me, with their faces very close to mine, and eyes glued to my mouth as I show them how to say the words. They watch me very carefully, and then try to repeat what I say. It usually takes a few tries, but they are always very excited when they finally say it.
I also help them write out letters and small words. They have exercises that they complete every day, which have given me strong memories of my days learning how to write. And when they finish an exercise, they hold it up to show me and yell, ¡Maestra, mira! which means, Teacher, look! Some things are the same in every culture...
The kids are very cute to say the least, but I also encounter some harsh realities as well. Yesterday, a boy asked me if my father hits me. I immediately said ´No,´ and told him that no one should hit him. It was then that the girl sitting next to us said, ¨No, it is true that fathers hit boys. Boys hit girls, too.´
How do I explain the difference between right and wrong in a foreign language to a 5-year-old? Family and gender violence are complicated issues in English, so how can I express them in Spanish to children who only know the world as they have seen it?
Every day I have to break up fights between the kids. Usually it´s the boys fighting over pencils or toys, but I once had the misfortune to witness four boys surround a girl and repeatedly hit her with their notebooks. Thus, I spend a lot of time picking up kids and putting them in opposite corners of the room.
I suppose that fights between 5 year old boys are considered ´normal.´ But just because something is considered to be normal does not mean it is right or that it has to occur, or furthermore that it can´t be changed.
Now, I doubt that my 4 hours of volunteer work a week will have a very large impact on these children who live in realities that I can´t even imagine, but I hope that I can instill in at least one boy that no one should ever hurt him or teach at least one girl that girls are smarter than boys.
And so, at least for now, I am satisfied with receiving their excited hugs when I enter the room every Tuesday and Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment