Roatan Campbells' Connection: All About Schools in Roatan–As I Understand It

Yes. This is Part 2. It's a big topic to us.😏 In Part 1, I shared what I understand about schools and the school system here in Sandy Bay, Roatan. The school stuff is like a puzzle - a puzzle with many pieces and it often seems like some of the pieces of the puzzle are missing. Sometimes you wonder if the puzzle box didn't even include the missing pieces and, sometimes you think someone has the missing pieces tucked away in his/her pocket. Here, I want to share with you the fun things. This is student things and how we spend most of our time. We enjoy these things and think we are making things easier so kids can succeed in school.

School shopping with Arezzi and kids.

Just to set the scene - we help the kids that we know - we don't go out looking for kids. There are many needs so we set boundaries. This year we have 19 kids we assist on a continuous basis and there were others we helped only with school start-up. People have generously provided so that we can assist in these ways. Thank you so much if you are one of these people!

Larry with Junior

We are involved in student things in several ways. During January, we are busy spending money! Our purchases are for uniforms and school supplies, as well as registrations for school. For the most part, we try to be part of the shopping experience. For the remainder of the time we are here, we are involved in support - particularly for homework. Both Larry and I participate in the money spending. I am usually in the classroom to assist with homework. When Larry is not out and about, he frequently checks in with students in the classroom, providing a "lighter" tone.

1. Uniforms – Many schools around the world require their students to wear uniforms. Honduras is no different. It is what you do. Public school students here can be identified by the white pleated shirt, navy skirt or pants, black dress shoes, and colourful backpack. Private schools each have a different uniform that distinguish students by school. The school emblem/monograma is purchased and sewn on the shirt. A school may send a student home if he or she does not have a uniform. I notice a bit of leniency with the public school here where students may be seen wearing flip-flops, or a white t-shirt or other white shirt in place of the uniform shirt. In the last few years, schools have begun to request students purchase the appropriate phys. ed. uniform. This is worn one day a week. The newest twist on the uniform thing is that some students in their graduating year (grade 9, or grade 12) are allowed to wear a special polo shirt with the school emblem one day a week, distinguishing this student as a potential grad.

The kids involved in private school have their pants or skirt sewn by the tailor. This has become a fun day for us when we meet the kids at the tailor for measuring. Otherwise, the storekeeper sizes you up and pulls out clothes just your size.

Carlos being measured for pants.

Public and private kids waiting for the bus.
Fresh crisp uniforms

2. School supplies - This shopping provides our retail therapy fix - woo-hoo! As well as uniforms, kids need something to put into those backpacks. Spiral workbooks are filled with copied notes, answers to "investigar" (research), and homework assignments. In the public schools, there are no texts or consumable workbooks. Everything is copied from the whiteboard or dictated. So, purchases include workbooks (about $15 twice a year), pencils, pens (black, blue and red are mandatory), a pencil sharpener, white board markers for the teacher, etc. Students should also have a Spanish, an English, and a Spanish/English dictionary. People ask if they can bring supplies down to us. Pencils, pens, and pencil crayons are super - quality here is expensive. But, the workbooks here are lined differently than in North America. They are also really bold and colourful. Calculators from North America have symbols written in English. That makes it a challenge to use the tool without instruction. I had never given it much thought until I did it wrong. We prefer to have cash to make purchases here getting what the kids want and also providing money to the local vendor. We are involved in helping kids with uniforms and back-to-school supplies so the local store-keeper knows us well and provides a discount.

So many colourful school supplies to choose from.

3. “Tienes tarea?” Tarea is something that we do a lot here. I frequently ask the students we work with, “Do you have homework?” Part of supporting students includes homework support. Four days a week (when we’re here), the kids are welcome to come to work on homework in our classroom. Since some students attend school in the morning, and some in the afternoon, the commotion is spread over the day. Some of the students also have English lessons. We have a mini-computer lab that is a focus for the older students. In the absence of textbooks, most research is completed using the Internet. The schools seem to require the preparation of many albums. These are booklets of images cut and pasted from the Internet and printed and assembled into a booklet. Even our youngest students are required to assemble albums.

Homework time.

Meri waiting for assistance with her album.
Thanks to Leidy who got her going!

Our classroom printer has seen much use over the years. On Saturday, with four projects awaiting printing, the printer silently died. After googling what to do, we took the advice of one computer-geek who suggested that printers sometimes can't be repaired and need to be replaced. Saturday we printed those projects on our personal printer in our house. Monday, our trusty old printer was replaced.

Each year there is the predictable special assignments – my favourite - the salt-dough animal-cell model project. Carlos needs to do two eco-system diaramas for Monday (3-D models). I made suggestions for him but didn't offer to do this. What a good bonding time for Carlos and his dad!

Since we aren’t living here in Roatan full-time, our most important job is teaching the kids to work independently including skill with computer Internet searches (Did you know that not everything you read on the Internet is true? Surprise!) Hopefully we have encouraged good work habits. Some of the kids are left with a computers to use while we're away. Others will need to use their parent's phone and data plan.

And now - the hokey part here - ready? There really isn't anything as rewarding as encouraging eager kids to succeed. The school puzzle and homework/ printer/ teenager worries aside - we get more from this than the kids. It's a pretty good way to spend a retirement!