I might be seen on Panama's most wanted

May 20, 2013

Okay, not actually, please don't freak out. But really I might kill the entire third grade class. 

This is how the day went; I walk into the class and the whole class starts cheering, and I think to myself, awww this is so cute, they like me, they really like me... but THEN my counterpart walks into the room and the entire class starts boo-ing- WHAT THE EFF?? So inappropriate. This week is finals week before the trimester break and the only thing they had to practice for their final oral presentation was to recite the list of vocabulary words (granted, in my opinion this is the worst final exam format I have ever had the displeasure of observing). Needless to say NOT ONE student actually studied. Each one would get up in front of the class and just stare at my counterpart until she started egging them on giving them hints to what the words were, not effective. The worst part wasn't that they didn't study, or that I could strangle my counterpart for creating such a pointless and inadequate exam but listen to what the kids were doing whilst their peers were trying to present, they were: 

-glueing their hands together

-taking wet paint from the artwork and having paint fights

-wrestling

-punching, kicking smacking 

-screaming across the room

-throwing pens and bottles across the room 

-drawing on each other 

And all the while my counterpart does NOTHING‽‽‽ WHAT THE HELLL IS GOING ON????? I tried just taking deep breaths and sitting there trying to be quiet and not do anything except to give the occasional discerning mom "really?" look to the kids eyebrow raised and all, but all they would do is smile sheepishly and then continue to do what they were doing.... and then I went apeshit. 

Not really but I did ask my counterpart if I could say a few words at the end of class and she said I could. So this is what I said; "The behavior of today's class saddens me, I have never been in a classroom that was so poorly behaved, where there was no respect for the teachers or one another. If I ever see behavior like this again I will not be returning to this class because I do not want to spend my time helping a class that doesn't want to learn." Or something along those lines, I'm pretty sure the world went dark and I turned into the hulk because the class got silent. Then my counterpart asks the class, "You all don't want that do you?" and the majority of the class said NOOOOO, except for one little brat who said, "I don't care if she never comes back" (this was the little shit who was glueing her hands together) To which I replied, "I'm not here to be your friends, I am here to help your school and teachers, I would like to get along with everyone, but if not then that is fine with me, that is not my job." I said this all in Spanish, so I'm not sure how much of it got lost in translation, but I think you get the point. I also am not sure if that was the best way to handle it but I don't know if my counterpart would have ever done anything because she is so freaking passive. 

Lawd it was a rough day, but I got through the rest of it, and playing with kindergarten right after that class did help to improve my mood. Though I have got to say, today was the first day thus far in my Peace Corps experience that I actually doubted if I could handle my service, but then I realized that this is all part of the challenges I am going to face and that I am going to have to learn to take the good with the bad. 

***Also my apologies for the craziness of this rant but I just had to get it off my chest before I exploded.