🍎 Longdistance Back-to-School

It is February. Normally, this is the time when we would be in Roatan checking out the final purchases, and arranging for buses, backpacks, and uniforms so that some of the kids we know get back to school successfully. Normally, by mid-February, the students have had a few days in their classrooms as they meet their teachers and classmates. In a normal year, our little classroom would be buzzing with kids excited to share about the homework they have and the materials they don't have. 

As has been the case for the past 11 months, nothing is normal. Back-to-school has happened - quite successfully - without us being there. We have kept cyberspace a-buzzing with various connections. It is really amazing to be there, without being there.  

Students have been enrolled and tuition paid. That was so smooth it makes us wonder why we ever worry.  We support students in 4 private schools as well as checking in on the needs for a few public school students. 

Not only have we been connected to our students and their families via internet, students are, for the most part now taking their lessons via zoom and phone apps. This means that instead of needing uniforms and backpacks, the kids need phones or computers, as well as data and wifi so they can connect. Happily, most had access to devices.

We are content with this for the students we support. In the Moya household, three kids are connected, sometimes all at the same time. Teachers send assignments to be completed offline so a full 6 hour day is not all online. These parents are motivated to help their kids succeed and also to pleasing us. When I asked Suyapa to send pictures of her kids on their first day, she encouraged them to dress in their uniforms from last year. The two older kids have grown so much that the skirt and the pants zippers didn't zip! 

Meri, Antony and Carlos Moya

The Midences live at Son Rise. This family is very tech savvy. For them, learning online is natural. But we, as well as the family, are disappointed that the girls are not interacting with other kids, and their teachers, having natural opportunities to practice English in conversation at their bilingual school. 

Alison Midence

Jessie and Josian are university students. We are disappointed that they too have no opportunities to interact with other students and make face-to-face connections with the people teaching their courses. They, on the other hand, prefer online classes because they had found it challenging getting out of work and to their evening classes on time. I guess there are always pros and cons. 

Josian and Jessie - homework time

The situation for back-to-school for public students has not been as smooth. The start-up date has been changed several times as the schools receive new instructions almost daily. Learning “en la casa” is the way it is to be for kids in Honduras, at least for the first few months as decreed by the minister of education on the mainland. (There are few cases of Covid on the island, but the mainland is still suffering. The blanket decision affects all.)

It is really, really difficult to describe how hard in-home learning is for many people we know. Parents are not working so are free to help. Yippee! Except, many parents may only have finished grade 6 (or less) themselves. For the general population, many families can’t afford food, so a phone and data for connecting with school lessons make online school impossible.

Unlike the private school teachers who are occupied with the business of teaching their students already, teachers in the public schools have been busy distributing materials - sometimes right to the homes! - with hopes of being ready for the (tentative?) start-up the first of March. The teacher is responsible to get packets of assignments to each of her students. I have seen the packets. They are produced by the ministry of education for the students of the country. They are really pretty good. They are visually attractive, and have good, grade appropriate exercises. What is missing is the lesson - you know - the teacher input part. 

Arezzi showed me Vashny's grade 4 packet that is for the first 15 days of March. Vashny has it completed. 

One mom I know said to me that her children will not be participating in school this year because “ It is not easy to be a teacher at home, at least I did not get the gift of teacher 😥😉” I have been pestering her so much that I think she will meet with the teachers to get the that first set of packets so that I stop asking her. 

One of the missionaries at Son Rise summed up education in Honduras. He said “ We have wifi, but other families do not, if this situation continues for 2 more years we will have kids with very poor education here in Honduras.”  We think it will be less than two years.

Lately, we have had to take a hard look at the expense of providing for students to attend private schools. We had always hoped that given time, the parents would take on more responsibility. This money could feed many families. However, for a second year, public school students are receiving a very mediocre opportunity to receive education.

And so we continue enrolling students in schools requiring tuition - is this the tenth year? - hoping that what is provided makes a difference.  Five of the seven students that we have seen graduate from high school have work right now, (not flashy jobs, but work) in a time when work is hard to find. One has completed the requirements to become a nurse and has a job to begin mid- March (we hope). Two of the graduates are working while taking university (college) courses.  

So we continue, even when we aren't able to support by being there. We think we are making a difference - a long distance difference. 

Keliany, in uniform, sisters Kiara and Audrey,
Alison.