Forging Forward With Confidence, Against All Odds........

The title of this post is the new motto of my school.  Not kidding.  It is emblazoned on a huge, hand-painted banner that hangs above the auditorium, a painted portrait of two GSS students in the center, books in hand, “forging forward.”  And yes, there are 8 dots in the ellipsis, not the normal 3.  To me, this says, “Well, we know the odds aren’t in our favor, but what the hell.”  The banner always makes laugh because it is so depressingly accurate.  The odds are certainly stacked against Georgetown Secondary.  The Education Revolution has flooded us with low-achieving students, and suddenly education isn’t such a hot commodity anymore.  There is such a pervasive feeling of uncaring on the part of the students that it is reflected everywhere you look — masses of students refusing to go into their classroom, roaming the halls and running away from teachers, newly fixed furniture already broken and graffitied, trash all over the stairs and hallways everyday after lunch…

Yesterday I went into a class with another teacher and witnessed this scene: desks and chairs were everywhere, students did not notice, or care, when myself and the teacher came in, or even when we started talking, one girl got up and left in the middle of class to take a call on her cell phone, another girl yelled “f— you” at a fellow student and had to be walked out to the principal, students continued to carry on loud conversations while the teacher attempted to teach, frequently interrupting and complaining about how “class boring,” and the list goes on.  When I took one student out to reprimand him for his behavior, I witnessed the principal beating with a belt what looked to be the majority of the class across the hall.  And you know what?  Sadly, I didn’t blame him.

The recent conclusion that I’ve come to is that students run the school.  Want to get an idea of what happens when unrestricted young people make all the rules?  Read Lord of the Flies. This conclusion was magnified even further these past few weeks as the students waited for their promised check of $200 to be delivered from the Prime Minister.  Recently, as an Independence Day present, the P.M. decided that he would give $200 to every school child, which the schools would distribute.  So, a few weeks ago, the government official comes and passes out the checks at the Primary school.  But at the Secondary school (which is directly across the street), no checks.  Okay, so it comes to light that Primary schools will be getting their money first, then secondary schools.  Still, a week goes by, and no checks.  I was actually in St. Lucia for my Peace Corps Mid-Service Training during this week, but I heard from the teachers that it was horrible.  Students accused teachers and staff of hiding the checks.  They threatened mutiny.  I returned the next week, and finally, at the end of the week, the checks came.  Upon suspecting that they were getting their money, almost all of the students rushed out into the hallways, although class was still in session.  I did not envy the teachers having to hand out money to the very students who had acted so appallingly disrespectful towards them in the previous weeks.  I know that it was not intended this way, but it did seem as if the kids were getting paid for their bad behavior.  And what kind of message does that send?

But, teachers and staff have to keep “forging forward.”  Myself, I go through stages — sometimes (well, let’s be honest, most of the time) I feel like the situation at GSS is totally hopeless, and other times I think, if we only came up with enough good ideas…

Yesterday was actually an accomplishment of sorts for me, in that I conducted a professional development training with the teachers on understanding and teaching the remedial reader.  Even though I had offered to the principal to do this session, I was still incredibly nervous.  I feared that the teachers would think I was criticizing the way that they did things, or think, who is she to tell us how to teach?  However, I actually think it went really well, and some teachers seemed genuinely interested in applying some of the strategies I discussed in their classrooms, which was great.  AND only 2 teachers were sleeping, which is a strong indicator of success, haha!

Although I am often tempted to jump ship on the school, there are a few things that keep me going.  For one, I know almost all the teachers, most of whom I really like, and a great many students.  I also feel like I’m involved in quite a bit, including a fledgling peer counselor program, which I’d like to help see get off the ground.  I’m still holding onto the belief that our new computer lab can revitalize reading remediation if we are able to get the right software.  But the main reason is that, I’m not a quitter, damnit.  And I get the sense that America, annoyingly, has made me that way.

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