January 10, 2012

January 10, 2012

We went to the Duck Run Three school again today. We did crafts with the children, played games, took pictures, and a few of the students helped the children with their math homework. Hannah and I spoke with one of the teachers and learned a little about his life. He did not want to be a teacher, but he had an associates degree from college will allowed him to take a 2 month substitute position at one of the schools. The government decided to hire him as a full time teacher and he has now been teaching for six years. His dream is to be an architect, but instead of having a bad attitude about having to teach, he had the attitude that he can help others through this. He said that he wants the children to come running to school and walking home, instead of the opposite. He wants to be able to change the attitudes of the other teachers and the students to want to learn and want to go on with their education. He told us about the grade system. “Infant 1 and 2” is the equivalent of grades 1 and 2. “Standard 1 and 2” is grades 3 and 4. “Standard 3 and 4” is grades 5 and 6. “Standard 5 and 6” is grades 7 and 8. The majority of children do not go onto high school. The teacher said that only a couple of students out of each class will go onto high school, and out of those who do go to high school only 1 or 2 will graduate. High school is not a requirement and the families pay for their child's high school and college education. . I received so many hugs today and the kids took many pictures again. I was sad to leave the school for the final time. We went to lunch at a restaurant that had many tourists from the cruise, then we walked around San Ignacio for a while. It was very hot today, so as soon as we arrived at the campground we excitedly took long cold showers. .