This afternoon we were standing around the copier as we always do discussing some interesting stories from the day. You see, the copier is like our water cooler. The only difference is the water cooler doesn't take forever to produce what you want and generally provides relief, as opposed to the copier which brings frustration. For anyone who has not yet celebrated their 40th birthday it is hard to imagine a copier that does not do double sided printing, let alone collating and stapling. So we do indeed spend many minutes at copier re-feeding paper to print double sided and then sorting back in the classroom.
The reason I was at the copier this afternoon and not this morning like I normally do is because for the past two days, the electricity has been out at school for the majority of the day. Since this occurred two days in a row, I decided to stay late today and make as many copies as I could in the event I show up tomorrow and there again is no electricity.
I was there with Norah, the Kinder/Prepa teacher, and Ashley, 2nd grade, and we were humorously comparing handouts. I was copying math worksheets and a "design your own experiment" project packet, while Norah was copying lunch-bag-puppet cut-outs. (Do you see the humor in this difference?) Ashley was copying a math worksheet somewhere in between academically challenging and visually appealing.
As we compared papers, we started talking about how none of us should really be waiting in line and how the loss of electricity totally changes the game plan. It happens with sudden realization that you cannot pass out the homework and your students will not be able to practice at home generally causes the WTF face and subsequent damage control game plan strategizing. But I digress.
We were discussing how simply having a class set of textbooks would be so much more beneficial. Almost all of the math classes 3rd-9th grade use worksheets to do as homework. That is a ton of paper that could be better used for any number of things. The other downside is that it teaches students a bad way to use their notes. Since 1st grade these students are required to bring a folder to transport homework to and from school. While this facilitates keeping track of their homework, they often leave their notebooks at school and just bring home their homework folders. How do you expect to succeed at homework if you do not have examples to use? Having a textbook would allow me to use the problems already printed in the pages and the students would be able to write their homework directly alongside their notes. To summarize, I am using more paper, more toner, and more time than is necessary if I only had a class set of used textbooks from which my students could work. Paper and toner are very scarce (costly) here in Honduras. They keep telling me time is abundant, but I have yet to hold that to be true.
But this is only Math class. The middle school English teacher often spends his morning, when there is electricity, copying pages of a novel he is reading with his students. Imagine just having copies of the novel. Paper, toner, and time saved.
I am not shocked or angered by this. I have come to use the phrase, "Honduras: embrace it...or it will crush you." Yes, there are hand motions that go along with this.
But this is just to give you a little glimpse into the scarcity, and therefore costly nature of what we do here at BECA. One of my goals this year is to develop a better system of donations so that we can get the resources that are best suited for the volunteers on the ground. I am having a hard time deciding which should be first...a better copier or more books.
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