Final Thoughts

The last few days of our trip were a whirlwind that didn't leave much time for blogging. Let me recap what happened on Friday and conclude my contribution to this blog.

On Thursday night, the principal stopped by to say hello and she warned us that because of a very far away basketball game, a large portion of the staff would be gone on Friday. When we arrived at school the next morning, we were placed in rooms with substitute teachers so that we could run the classrooms and the students wouldn't just have a study hall. One substitute didn't even show up, so Alyssa and I subbed for a high school chemistry class. Great! Chemistry is my specialty! (Ha.) We decided to do a vocabulary exercise that I'd done with a couple language arts classes so that the students weren't just sitting there - the chem teacher hadn't left any plans. Surprisingly, the students never questioned what we were having them do - they eagerly and thoroughly completed the assignment, and not one of them gave us a problem. It was absolutely delightful. We'd been expecting them to see that we were giving them busy work, and I think that in many of the classrooms in which I've worked, the activity would not have gone over well. When we shared our experience with the principal, she commented that she wasn't surprised, because the students aren't used to having someone really teach them. The current chemistry teacher isn't certified to teach chemistry, so he's been instructing them straight from the book - AND he's been on personal leave since the semester started, so they've been teaching themselves from the book. It must have been so refreshing to be doing something mildly original. Alyssa and I were really pleased. :)

For a little while Friday morning, I had the opportunity to sit in on a first grade class, which is part of the Navajo immersion program. I was warned that absolutely no English was to be spoken in the classroom, so I went in prepared to remain silent. However, it quickly became evident that things weren't as I expected them to be. Although everything in the room was in Navajo, the teacher spoke Navajo to the students, and the students spoke Navajo to her, they spoke only English to each other - and to me. I walked in to a chorus of, "Who are you? What's your name? Are you Indian? What are you doing here? Can you help me with this? Are you a teacher?" etc. I didn't know what to do! I'd been told not to speak English, but here were these students speaking to me - should I remain silent? I did, until the teacher approached me and whispered in English that I could speak to them to answer their questions since I was only visiting for a little bit. From that point on, things were much more comfortable, but the students were dismayed when I told them I couldn't help them with the activity they were working on, since I don't speak Navajo. It was really interesting, and not what I'd been expecting at all. This immersion program is praised as being extremely effective and innovative in the field of bilingual education. It was clear that the students understood and were able to speak Navajo, but how do you control the language in which they speak to each other? You can't punish a seven-year old who feels more comfortable talking to his classmates in his native language, English - right? I didn't get a chance to talk to the classroom teacher about it, but I'd imagine it's very frustrating for her.

We stuck around after school Friday to say some very sad goodbyes to students, teachers, and administration. We chatted for a long while with the principal and our friendly security officer. The principal worked in Pittsburgh for a long time before coming to Rock Point very recently, so she's very familiar with Pennsylvania's school system. I hadn't thought about it before, but she told me that everything is very scripted, and that the curriculum is extremely structured - to the point where teachers get packets outlining what they should say when they're teaching and how students might respond. Wow. Not what I want to do. She recommended that I look into Columbus, Ohio, where the superintendent is very insistent on letting her teachers create their own classrooms. I'd really like flexibility with my curriculum, and it seems obvious now that it might be hard to find in large urban districts. I looked into Columbus today, and it looks pretty sweet. I'll wait to see what happens with Teach for America - I can check to see if I got an interview tomorrow - and if they'll take me, I think I'll stick with that. Otherwise, maybe you can find me in Ohio next year!

Saturday and Sunday were long days of driving, but they seemed to go quickly, for me, at least. I enjoyed the time we got to debrief the trip with each other.

I learned so much, but I there is one main idea that I think is most important. In my first post, I said that traveling and learning about different cultures create a more tolerant individual. I still agree with that, but in a different way. I think that the important things to recognize in other cultures are not the differences, but the similarities. I went into this trip with all sorts of expectations about what the Navajo would be like. Some of them were true, and some of them were not. Most importantly, I entered a community full of extremely friendly, generous, genuine people. Rock Point Community School and its students aren't so different from what I'm used to after all. They may have different values and traditions, but people are people.

There's one more thing: Robin had a conversation with the director of the school about employment there (!!) and the director said something that really stuck with me. (I hope Robin's not upset with me for sharing it before she does!)
"These students don't need saving, they just need help."
I'm not looking to save anyone, but I sure am ready to do what I can to help.