Reality Check

June 16, 2012

Captain’s Log: Day 12

Miles traveled: a lot

People met: 10,000

Languages introduced to: 1

Grains of rice consumed: infinity

I am finally settling in nicely at homestay.  Homestay is where the Peace Corps makes you live with a Ghanaian family in hopes you will learn to integrate and the culture shock won’t kill you when you get to your site.  I live with a woman not much older than me and her 2 children, Rita and Nana. The mom is nice, although the first day I was here she took me to the store she owns to meet her sister and grandmother and I’m pretty sure they made fun of me for a solid 10 minutes. If you ever want to test your confidence move to a country where you have intestinal issues, you sweat constantly, being greasy becomes second nature, you wear ugly shoes because they are “functional”, your clothes are anything but cute, and then a group of women pick you apart in a language you don’t understand. I almost cried but I’m still not sure if that’s what was going on exactly, so I swallowed the giant lump in my throat and mentally cussed… a lot. Afterwards I vowed I would win her and her family over so they would realize that behind this sweaty, poorly clothed exterior, there’s a humorous, good-natured human being that is totally interested in sharing cultures.

 That happened on Monday and here it is Saturday. I think I am doing pretty well. The mom and I laugh a lot together and I am not afraid to make fun of myself so I think that helps. Rita is her daughter and my “sister”. She is 4 and such a freakin handful. Apparently everything I own belongs to her and she has no qualms about going through my things and taking whatever she likes. I am in the process of laying down the boundaries now and it’s not easy. She is very headstrong, but little does she know I am well versed in 4 year old psychology because of my days spent being an assistant pre-school teacher.  I’ll let you know who wins.

If moving in with a Ghanaian family, in Ghana, wasn’t enough I am also trying really hard to be a teacher in Ghana.

My previous expectations of teaching art in Ghana:

Unstructured

A lot of freedom

I thought I would be introducing tons of new concepts and modern art

Free time to make art for myself

Zero to no paperwork

Lack of resources, but I am pretty thrifty so I wasn’t too worried

Fun

Small classes

Enthusiastic students willing and excited about soaking up all my artistic knowledge

How teaching art in Ghana actually is:

An extremely formatted lesson plan to go with every lesson
No freedom to vary from syllabus (Ill elaborate on why later)
Large classes (like 100 kids)
Extremely structured
The kids are tested on everything they know and if they don’t pass they don’t get to go to college
Ghana art terms and American art terms are completely different
Every kid goes to school and sits for hours on the same desk so they get very restless
Art is seen as less than math and science so the kids aren’t too excited to be there
No resources
The teacher moves from class to class and the student just sits still
Testing

Let me explain. In Ghana all of education revolves around this test the officials give called WASSCE. The last year the students are in school they take the WASSCE to see whether they are even eligible for college. If they fail it’s a no go, but if they pass it depends on their scores as to where they will go to college. Everything gets very serious in senior high school. At the end of junior high school the kids take a test to see where they place for senior high school. The lowest scorers are placed in art. Once placed in art and in their junior year, they decide what discipline they want to pursue, included but not limited to, ceramics, graphic design, picture making, textiles, sculpture, and leather work. I am going to be doing picture making which is basically drawing and painting. I also have to teach General Knowledge Art to the entire freshman class. The classes are usually huge. Also the sheer amount of information the students have to retain is insane. The amount of vocabulary and the amount of technical skill the kids have to know takes all the fun and creativity out of art.

On Friday I went to a very nice Ghanaian school to teach a 15 min lesson.  Not only was I overwhelmed by the technical knowledge these people know but I am amazed at the huge words these kids have retained and use. If you ask them what something is they give you the textbook definition and replace every regular word with its larger, more complex synonym.  I feel like I might be in over my head. I decided I was going to teach a lesson on the color wheel because that’s easy and I didn’t have to put a ton of effort into it. Guess what!? For all you art folks, the Ghanaian definition of tertiary color is mixing 2 secondary colors (so you end up with like a grey or brown) the American definition of a tertiary color is the mixing of a primary and a secondary (like yellow green). I made a fool out of myself and I learned that even if you think you know something you should probably look it up before teaching it to a group of students.

As you can see I’m a little stressed out. I think I have a really good support system here and I know the Peace Corps and the Ghana people want me to succeed.  There are a ton of people rooting me on so I’m going to give this my best shot and see what happens.