Ahh, it's raining again. We just got done with rain last weekend, or so we thought, and now we're in for it again. How wonderful. There doesn't seem to be any threat of flooding, and as long as it's not heavy rain, the ground's still absorbing more. It's just the current crops that suffer...and my students get stir crazy and end up going nuts in class.
Speaking of classes, things are going well but I'm still incredibly frustrated. I've worked about a month with the kids on doing basic genetics problems and many of them, if not most, are by any measure still incapable of solving them. I've given two extra sessions a week for the past few weeks, given extra problems to do at home, and now I'll hand out even more to do at home for the semester finals. But it's frustrating to put that much work in and have students - so many - who clearly don't understand a thing, and when asked, seem to not haved a desire to understand.
Lately, I've been feeling that the good that I can do here has been done - that I'm now teaching completely out of their abilities.
Because for all of primary school, they're taught to mimic the teacher - feed back what has been fed. They get to secondary school and the 10th grade exam requires them to go above and beyond. It's like training a mechanic on a bicycle and then throwing them a broken down semi. The mechanic has two choices: bust his ass learning truck repair with a crappy background in bicycle repair, or try and cut a deal with another gearhead who will do it for less and pawn it off as your own work.
I understand the mechanic's dilemma, and I consider myself to be included in the former group. And it seems to me that success in Mozambique as measured by successful people seems to come to those who bust their ass - instead of those who whine "They never trained us for this!" So I want my students to quit whining because I'm giving them the opportunity to pass.
But the dilemma is twofold. They've spent seven years on bicycle repair and I essentially want them to spend two on Mack trucks. Their habits have already been formed. Their capacities have already been defined. Like the bicycle mechanic, they have a limited tool set. I need to teach them how to use tools they don't have.
So I say that all my good has been done because I'm too deep into Mack truck repair to turn back and give them some sort of compromise. There will be some who will never get it, and may buy their way into passing. There will be some who struggle and success, but they already have the tools to success.
I think that the more I try, the more I teach, the better their chances are. I still think that - maybe this whole situation is my own Mack truck.
Peace
John
