I've been slightly ill lately with a stomach/GI thing. I may not play handball tomorrow. Yesterday, I was a goalie for about 5 minutes. It's radically different from hockey or soccer because of the angles, equipment, angle from which the object is coming, and freedom of movement of the goalie. Picture being a rat with a flyswatter running around the rim of a basketball hoop.
I've been thinking a lot lately about things I can't remember or don't wish to bring up here.
That being said, I'm quite busy. With English classes, handball, school, and HIV/AIDS activist training, I need my evenings for nothing to do.
Naturally, I've been taking that time to read about becoming a better teacher. I'm realizing that doing so is almost impossible in a system that values raw memorized knowledge held to a low level of what's considered "competent". My students don't know how to read a sentence and even on a basic level, understand it. They often don't have the desire to try. There are clearly exceptions, a few in every class. But as I can't do what I feel is necessary - failing the students who don't demonstrate a capacity to learn - I have to essentially figure out who is more mediocre.
I don't blame anyone for this. I've thought about the Mozambican government, foreign governments, NGOs, political parties, warring parties, parents, the students themselves, teachers, etc., but it seems like it's a product of every single factor. There's not enough money for books, so teachers spend much of their time dictating. There are not enough teachers, so many classes go untaught. So when you try to actually teach two classes in a row, students get antsy and frustrated. As a teacher, you learn it's easier to dictate. When you dictate, you can only test on memorization of the information, because you never explained it. And since teachers teach how they were taught, the cycle continues.
Poverty breeds poverty more literally, as well. NGOs flock to poor countries, but those countries very quickly become dependent on foreign aid and lose their natural blue-collar workforce.
What I don't know is how to break the cycle. I know that in education, it starts with subtle changes in teaching methodologies. But money?
Peace
John
