Cartagena is such an impossible blend of qualities. Going out any door, one is literally blasted with the heat. In the center of many buildings including my hotel, there is an open courtyard, beautiful, and spilling over with beautiful flora. I'm always drawn to move closer, and then, I find it exudes heat like a furnace. The view from the shore is spectacular, but severe poverty is in evidence in all too many neighborhoods. The preserved history, culture, music, dance and cuisine are breathtaking, but it is crowded, the streets an impossible pile up of cars, buses, and motorcyclists like ants--one stops at an intersection to assess the situation, and in what seems a moment, finds hoards of motorcyclists have recklessly scraped around one's car. Song can be heard everywhere, but hardship is inescapable. Public schools come in all varieties, but a reoccurring experience is that the classrooms are severely overcrowded, have little technology, and are swelteringly hot. Since the trucker strike, students at Bertha Gedeon, among other schools, are unable to have school lunch foods delivered. I share these details to point out the contrast between circumstances and the people here, and in particular, the teachers and students. Teachers are faced with what seems to be impossible odds and I've seen innumerable instances of not only dedicated perseverance, but hope. In my class in the United States, if my classroom is too hot, students moan or go to sleep. Here, Rosalia has them jumping to their feet to do community service or play English language games. Ana and Luis have them learning new vocabulary through contests and they're laughing, enjoying themselves, and not even realizing they are learning. Nancy and Rene have them singing to review newly learned English. Gabriel has them painting the current situation in Colombia using symbolic imagery. Alaida has them depicting their ideas of a better Colombia. At Bertha Gedeon, where we observed for a more extended time, the entire school is involved in the Cathedral for Peace, a nationwide effort for students to envision and problem solve issues including peace, human rights, and global citizenry. There are numerous opportunities for them to express their culture and they do, through dance, costume, music, and food. They are generous with us, with each other, and have now turned their focus to their community. There is something ironic about all this. More than ironic--impossible. In my own country, perhaps we are not given all that we need, but we have a lot more than they do here. Cartagena gives me food for thought. I'd like to incorporate the generosity involved in giving outsiders elaborate welcomes with dance and food. I'd like to incorporate cultural demonstrations that are as much gifts as they are expressions of pride in one's culture. I'd like to use song to help students grapple with a second language. I'd like to model the perseverance I saw in the drivers, in the vendors, in the teachers, and in the students. I'd like to teach my students to always see the good in any situation, and always remember to be liberal with kind things to say. I'd like to place peace, human rights, and global citizenship at the center of what we do in my classroom. In short, I'd like to shift emphasis from what we cannot control, to what can be done.
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Open ForumThis blog exists in order to encourage discussions between my high school English Language Arts students at New Futures School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and other students around the world. Archives
August 2016
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