On the Challenges of...

On the challenges of working with privileged children…

When I started my teaching career in MCPS I was working in Gaithersburg, a school with many immigrant children from all over. For the most part, they were living below the federal poverty line. In most instances, parents were working several jobs and then barely scraping by. But I noticed that kids seemed to love being in school! For them, school was a place to “escape” the harsh realities of poverty (sleeping in an apartment with 12 other people, not eating at home simply because there is no food, taking care of little brothers/sisters, no structure and routine). For these children, teachers and school was something regular they could count on.

Now, the reason I’m writing this is because I’ve been thinking about my new situation. It could not be further from my job in Gaithersburg!

Although I don’t have much experience in other parts of the world, I’ve heard that the following is true all over. In developing countries there are extremes…wealth beyond belief (several BMWs and Mercedes, nannies for the kids, drivers, several palatial homes) and then you have folks just barely scraping by (begging on the streets, living in slums). I’d say Ecuador is somewhere in the middle. While there is extreme poverty, it affects a small percentage of the population. And there is also extreme wealth, also a very small percent of the population (namely the kids I teach!) Most Ecuadorians are lower class or middle class.

I’ve never been around this kind of wealth before. I’ve been doing a lot of listening to my students and carefully formulating how I want to respond so that it is out of kindness and not anger.

Two examples:

-After we returned from the Christmas break, a lot of my students were talking about the places they went. For these children, breaks from school are fun and exciting! (Not like my students in Giathersburg, where many just sit in front of the TV) Disney, Argentina, Spain, Grandma and Grandpa’s farm away from the city. After all these experiences, school is kind of boring!

And the presents they got: It’s normal for 7 year olds to exaggerate, but I’m not sure who was exaggerating and who was telling the truth! Then it became a competition to say who got the most “stuff.” At first it was funny, then it just became annoying and then excessive. “Well, I got 4 iPads. One for the office, one for my TV shows, one for the Internet and one for…). Yeah, well I have blah, blah, blah. (I really DO think they were exaggerating, but again, it’s this mindset of…I have so much stuff and my parents do to and we’re so much better than you!) I proudly tell my students that no, I don’t have a car or a driver and that yes, I do walk in Quito almost every day! (no they don’t rob me and yes, I like being around everyone else walking in the streets-it makes me feel connected)

-In another case, one of my students told a story of how he and his dad were getting out of their car (of course driven by the chofer) and some begging street children came up to them saying, “Give me candies, give me money, please sir, please sir.” My student said indignantly, “My dad reached into his pocket to give him the candies and the street kid robbed him. I HATE THOSE KIDS, they bother me so much.” During this rant, I was working with another group of kids, but had one ear to that conversation between two boys. My first response was to tell them quite “teacher-like” something like “HATE is a very strong word. Did you really mean this? How can you hate these kids if you don’t even know them? How would you feel if you had no shoes, no mom and did not know where your next meal was coming from.” They kind of just stared back at me I think because that is so far from their reality that it’s impossible for them to imagine. My own tirade just kind of went in one ear and out the other.They both kind of just brushed me off and went back to their work. Not a big impact on my part. So I’ve been thinking, I would love for them to meet my friends in Puyo or my indigenous Quichua families I worked with in Pulucate. Just to get some perspective. The upper class here is SO isolated. They run in their own circles, play with their own friends, live in their own enclaves. I’m not saying I want my students and the begger kids to be best friends, I would just like to give both an opportunity for conversation and playing. Thinking about how I can do this…

For now, I’m going to show my kids slide shows of some of my experiences in the Peace Corps. When kids know someone (me) who has lived surrounded by so much poverty and survived (!) it doesn’t seem so scary. But I also want to be careful not to reinforce the stereotype of “oh those poor indian kids, no money, no shoes, it’s our obligation to send $50 a month so we feel better about ourselves.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am happy teaching these children! And not ALL my students are like this, just about half! (Just doing some thinking out loud…)