Vacation Classes in the Coffee Lands
Over the past few years, I have taught a variety of students ranging as young as four years old to the oldest at eighteen, in subjects ranging from basic English and Math to Lego robotics. The children of Quinini outshine them all in their sheer joy in learning. So far, I have only spent a week with these young learners, but I can’t begin to express how I feel seeing each and every one of them smiling in the morning because they are truly excited about what they will be learning that day. Moreover, they want to prove what they know and how they have improved.
We have already created a few group fractured drawings and started our paper mache projects. Today, our class was painting a landscape with watercolors. One of my students was one of the first done and promptly became upset that it was too “feo” – ugly. It of course wasn’t, but despite my assurances that it was a great attempt, he decided he would try again, and indeed, he learned and improved. Seeing his smile after the second made me realize that unlike what I assumed, he did not see it as a failure, but as part of his learning process and that if he had another chance, he would indeed improve. All of these kids are bright and thirsting to improve and for more information. Even during the art centered part of the lesson, they are constantly asking me what some of things we are drawing are in English. Those “arboles” we’re drawing? In English, they’re called trees. In Chinese? Shu. And the “flor?”
For some of the older students, I have separated them from the younger classes. Over the years, their vocabulary has accumulated in both classes and previous workshops and they wanted more help with pronunciation. Especially with conversation, language moves fluidly and holistically. I still remember learning Spanish in high school, with the teacher using a projector, filling out the same worksheets and wishing for the next period to come. I wanted classes to be a little more fun and more free-flowing, but again, the students were way ahead of me, giggling over funny pronunciations, trying different words, goofing around together and with me. When the lesson wasn’t advanced enough, they let me know that they wanted to be challenged.
Ultimately, they’ll teach me more than I could ever possibly teach them. I can already feel it in the warm Quinini air, the fruits they pick off trees for me, dragging me (very willingly of course!) to play various games and the way I already feel like part of the community. Because learning really is far more than how you score on a institutionalized test or an experience to put on a resume, and kids instinctively know what adults have often forgotten.
