School is Stopped Until Oct. 6th - 09/15/08

In Haiti, it never ceases to amaze me how everything can be going so well and then everything gets turned upside down. I was in my last class today and a missionary from a short term group walked into my room and said to hold everyone until Carmen, the school director, stopped by for a quick announcement. A few minutes later she walked in to inform the class that the minister of education for Haiti stopped by her office to announce that school is to start on October 6th. He explained that they were beginning school late because of all the hurricanes to allow families to get back on their feet a little before starting. This came as a huge shock because we had already begun school on September 3rd and it would be too much of a loss for the students to miss the next three weeks of school. As a matter of fact, since we are not funded by Haiti in any fashion and since we are a private school we have never started school on the exact same times as other schools. For one, most of the teachers are US citizens and we already have purchased our tickets to return May 30th so we wouldn’t be able to make up the lost time at the end of the year which she expressed to them. She also mentioned that we only had a few students who started late but everyone has been able to make it without trouble in our area so we really weren’t affected. I have a student in my class who only missed the first three days of school. She has not only made up lost time and turned in all assignment, but she is getting an A in the class as well. When he heard that we had already started school, he said we needed to stop until October 6th. This was incredibly frustrating because we would essentially lose three weeks of classes and wouldn’t be able to make up the time

After he understood that we weren’t affected by the hurricanes, he said he wanted to wait because of the economy which wasn’t logical. It is true that the economy is affected by the rise in food prices, but three weeks isn’t going to turn that around. If anything, it will only get worse over the next three weeks. After Carmen explained that this wasn’t necessary, we were told, “Well, if you don’t follow this rule, then what other rules will you break.” This tells me that it was a matter of pride and respect. If anything, I would think that the minister of education would make sure that education is not stopped. Actually, we do try to abide to the guidelines by making sure that each school year is a certain length so the students are getting a good education. The reasoning is senseless as it doesn’t help anyone in any fashion. Essentially, the decision was, “You need to stop school because I told you so, that’s why!” It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if we didn’t already have our tickets to leave on May 30th as we could have just taught for three more weeks at the end.

So, what are we going to do the next two and a half weeks? We are “tutoring” the students. The students were told to come back on Tuesday in street clothes (students here wear uniforms) and that we would be tutoring. The hours will run from 8:00AM – 12:00PM. The point of this is to show that we are not running school as normal, but also so we can do our best to ensure that the students are still receiving an education.

Some of the students asked if they had to show up. I told them, “No, you don’t. You aren’t required to show up for tutoring, just as you aren’t required to show up for school. Tutoring is a choice just as a normal day of school is. However, just as if you miss a day of school, you won’t know what is going on and your grade will be affected.”

The reassuring fact of this decision is that before Carmen decided to do this, she consulted with several parents and people active in the community as well as our most seasoned staff who know the culture very well. Next, she had a letter written in Creole to all of the parents to inform them of what was happening. Not a single person thought that we should stop. All parents wanted their students to continue with school which was refreshing.

The biggest issue other than confusion and rescheduling our class periods was the attire students would wear. For some students, who are wealthier, they were excited about being able to wear regular clothes to school. Some of our students have family in the states and visit each summer so they have plenty of trendy clothes. For other students who aren’t as wealthy, these were most likely worried about what they could wear as many of them don’t have many clothes that they can rotate throughout these few weeks which is one of the main reasons we have them wear uniforms. It standardizes what the students wear and makes them all comfortable around each other. Unfortunately, we couldn’t have the students wear uniforms if we were going to “tutor” them for the next few weeks. It would look too much like teaching. Fortunately, because of everyone’s determination to help these students I know we will be successful though we are dealing with something that seems so absurd.