Though I have been here for more than three weeks, I have
experienced little to no culture shock. I have found that I don’t make many
US-centric assumptions, and Guatemala has been meeting most of my expectations.
At least, that was true until last Thursday.
I had been teaching science classes in the preschool since
the 30th of June. They were going rather successfully so the
education director asked if I would teach one more class a week with the Basicos.
“Basico” is a Spanish word meaning “primary” and was translated for me as “middle
schoolers”. I naturally agreed and last Thursday marked my first class with
them.
I was aware that they might be older than what I would
expect for middle school in the United States. Because for so many students here
going to school depends on sponsorship through Mayan Families, and there are
many more children than sponsors, some students lose sponsors and have to take
time off of school until another sponsor is found for them. Even students who
don’t miss school may have to repeat grades because all classes Kindergarten
and above are taught completely in Spanish and not their native Kaqchikel,
Quiche, Tsusujil, etc. So I figured that these middle schoolers might be old.
Circa 12 or so.
My youngest student on Thursday was 15. My oldest was close
to 19. I was definitely taken aback that I was teaching “middle schoolers” not far
in age from me.
So I had to do some on-the-spot upgrading of my lesson
plans. Preschoolers can be captivated by floating objects and water bottles by
for long periods of time, but it takes a little more effort to keep teenagers
interested.
I decided that for future classes I would have to make
separate lesson plans for my preschools and my teenagers. And tomorrow is Day
Two with the Basicos. Time to test drive those new lesson plans.
Every day is something new. Wish me luck!
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