Small Successes

I know that my being here has inspired many of the children to work harder in their studies. I know it has re-invigorated many of the teachers. I also know that I will never truly know the true impact these five and a half weeks have had on the people I met here. Yesterday at the weekly assembly, I was able to celebrate a small but rewarding success. The results from the weekly exams are reported on Mondays, with students who have earned stars asked to stand for a round of applause, and the students who have failed one or more subjects made to stand in public shame. [Note for an American audience: Although I was repulsed by the second part of this practice during the first assembly, after more fully understanding the context of this school, the amazing opportunity these boys are given, and the expectations of their parents, I have come to support it as both a discipline tool and as a way to remind students that it is their responsibility to study and take full advantage of the resources offered here.]

The students in kindergarten here range greatly in age and ability level. From the smallest who have trouble recognizing letters in English to the strongest students who can read sentences and know their times tables. For many of these children, SSK is the first experience in their lives when they must follow a strict routine, take regular baths, wash their own clothes, and sit for hours daily in a chair. The change from their villages to this school must be shocking to them. The kindergarten teacher is totally overwhelmed with 49 little ones in the same room with such varying abilities. When I started tutoring, the 10 lowest students were assigned to meet with me once weekly. I decided to meet one-on-one a few times a week with the three lowest, as they were quantitatively lower than the others. They all struggled to recognize letters and could not spell the numbers one through ten, let alone higher numbers that they were being asked on their exams. They were repeatedly failing their weekly exams. This week, all three of them passed their English test! Although such progress is not normally celebrated at the assembly (they did not do so well as to earn stars), I asked special permission for these three to stand, and the terrace was filled with thunderous applause for their accomplishment. In this one moment, all the inconveniences and hardships I suffered to secure the visa, to travel half-way around the world, to live in a vermin-infested room without air conditioning or reliable water or power for five and a half weeks melted away into insignificance. To see their beaming faces as their friends and teachers cheered for them paid me back a hundredfold.