Public Schools

So as you’ve probably gathered from our previous entries, the public schools here are pretty bad. In fact, we cannot really imagine a way to make them worse. To be a kindergarten teacher, you only have to finish eighth grade, to be an elementary school teacher you have to finish high school (with a “major” in teaching), and to be a high school teacher you are supposed to have a bachelor’s degree (no credential), but we have met plenty of high school teachers without a degree. It seems like there are never classes for a variety of reasons: strike (there are many possible reasons for this), a funeral (could be for a parent of a child, teacher, or any other person known or unknown), some kind of event (in the school, in the community), due to inclement weather, or for a variety of other reasons. The school day is supposed to be five hours long (7:00 or 7:30 A.M. to 12:00 or 12:30 P.M. or 12:00 or 12:30 to 5:00 or 5:30) but this hardly ever happens. In most schools that we have been to classes usually start at least half an hour late and get out half an hour early. Plus, there is usually an hour of snack/recess instead of the allotted 20 to 30 minutes. If a teacher does not show up for whatever reason there are no substitute teachers, the kids just go home. Needless to say, the kids don’t learn a whole lot. It is very depressing.

Teachers have no supplies (paper, pencils, chalk, markers) unless they buy them with their own money. School is free but parents have to buy uniforms and school supplies. Thus, some of the really poor children do not go to school because it is too expensive. Teachers have to make everything for their classrooms out of construction paper that they buy themselves. They often “laminate” things they want to keep nice by wrapping them in clear tape. One certainly learns to be resourceful spending time in Honduran schools! Often times there are not enough desks/tables or chairs and there are never enough textbooks. It is almost impossible to find storybooks in schools as these are very expensive and not sold in most places. The playgrounds do not usually have anything to play on, maybe some painted, half-buried tires to crawl through. Flower beds (if there are any) are lined with half buried soda bottles and plants are planted in old tires. .

Shannon has been doing a lot of observations for her English classes in order to see how the teachers are teaching English in their classes. She has had some interesting experiences. The first one went badly. Shannon got up early to catch a 6:00 A.M. bus and the teacher never got on. When she called the teacher, she told her that she had another engagement and wouldn’t be able to make it (mind you she is a teacher and this is her job) but that she had left a message for Shannon on her voicemail. Turns out she had the wrong number so there was no message. Shannon had to stay on the bus an hour until they passed a bus going in the opposite direction to which she could hop on.

Another one of the observations involved both of us (Shannon was told it would be dangerous to go alone) walking uphill (literally no flat or downhill parts) for about three miles. After walking an hour uphill in the heat and humidity (yes it is already hot at 6:00 A.M.) and stopping to ask directions about a million times, we finally made it dripping in sweat. The school was two rooms for six grades with only one teacher. He had a helper, a “muchacha”, who is not qualified to teach and who the municipality pays L1,000 per month (about $50). Minimum wage is L5,500 per month so this is certainly not legal. The teacher is trying to get the Ministry of Education to provide another qualified teacher for the school but has not had any luck yet. Although he was the only teacher and could only be with half of the kids at a time, the kids were extremely well-behaved. They all participated, listened quietly (a miracle here), and really seemed to want to learn. It was amazing!

Another school Shannon went to had three teachers for six grades. Each class has two grades but unlike combination classes in the U.S., they are not grouped by age/grade. First and fifth grade are together, second and fourth, and third and sixth. The different grades sit on different sides of the classroom and one group works on an activity while the teacher works with the other group. Usually the group working on the activity messes around and yells a lot. In this particular school, one teacher was pretty good and controlled her classroom well, one was ok, and one was terrible. In the terrible class the side of the class not learning English was yelling, wrestling, throwing things, and one boy was sitting with his bare feet on his desk blowing nonstop on a whistle! Shannon could barely hear let alone concentrate. The teacher did nothing to control them and when she finally could not take it anymore, she sent the kids not learning English home (it was 10:30). The rest of the kids got out an hour early to make goals for the soccer games they were having the next day (classes were cancelled of course). This involved kids ranging from 9-12 years old running around with machetes chopping giant branches to the correct lengths (a little bit of math perhaps?). It was a madhouse with more machetes than Shannon had ever seen and all manned by children! Luckily nobody got hurt, even though many of the machetes were thrown through the air at other kids, and all the branches were cut.

Moral of the story, if you are ever feeling bored or a little too happy and optimistic, go to almost any public school in Honduras and all of that will change. It makes schools in the U.S. look like shining specimens of gold and makes us so sad for all these Honduran children who are not getting the quality education they deserve.