Here in the schools in Belize one thing I have noticed is that the parents of the students are very competitive with their children's grades. The children get really upset if they think they didn't do well because their parents have put so much pressure on them. I don't know if this may just be at the school that I am working in or if it is like this in most of them. I know Ambergris Caye is a private school so this may have something to do with it. One little girl cried almost everyday that we took a test because she didn't do as well as her parents wanted her to. The kids are only 6 and 8 and it is really sad to see them get so upset when they did a perfectly fine job on their tests. I found it really surprising that some of the kids are out so late selling jewelry and working at stands with their parents. Even at the Arts Festival that was on a school night the kids were out pretty late for that event. I don't really know yet if I can say that the community of Belize does or does not value their children and education because there are many that I come in contact with that definitely do value both and then there are some that definitely seem not to. I was shocked by all of the free time during the school day and at how laid back everything is. The schools are so much less structured here than they are back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment