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Friday, July 3^rd, 2009

Today was a productive day, despite the fact that we didn’t get up until 1:30! J

The truth comes out! The dream of the utopian society has been shattered! Martha Elena, the teacher who so eagerly invited us to observe her classroom, further extended the invitation to her house, located on the second floor of a dilapidated building in Old Havana. She greeted us eagerly with the warmth found in almost every Cuban we’ve met, and then we began questioning away...

We learned so much! The first myth she shattered for us was that teachers earn one of the lowest salaries - less than $20 per month. This is in contrast with what Global Exchange said: that teachers and doctors are two of the most well-paid professions. Marta Elena informed us that cleaning a street could earn over double the pay of a teacher. To worsen the situation, teachers also must go through five years of post-high school training at a university. When we asked her why in God’s name anyone would want to be a teacher, she said this: “I wouldn’t change my job because I like it. I always knew that I would be a teacher, since I was a child. The job is easy if you really like it. We need to teach students values and the best is to teach the values that you have.” She also stressed to us the importance of creating a family within the classroom. She explained how she instilled a Robin Hood-like culture in which those who had snack shared with those who didn’t.

The same generosity that she expects of her students, she also expects of her student’s parents. She said that when she noticed a kid did not have a backpack or some other necessity, she would let a wealthier parent know and ask if they had an old one they could donate, or if they could buy the student one. She said that the parents eagerly agree. She said that in the beginning of the year, she explains to the parents the values that she hopes to instill in their children—things like generosity, patriotism, and love for your fellow human being-- and lets them know that she will not be able to do it without their full support. In her 18 years of teaching, she is yet to have a bad relationship with parents of the children.

However, even in the cocooning warmth of her family/classroom, there have been kids with conduct issues. Cuba has special schools for these students in which there is an, at most 10:1 student:teacher ratio, but usually more like 7:1. Some of these facilities have the students live on-campus, where they receive all the psychological treatments and physical necessities (food, clothing, and even toys!) for free. Students stay for a maximum of 2 years at these schools and Marta says when they return they are well-behaved. (How many of these schools do we need in the U.S.? Hmmm…probably a LOT.)

Also, interestingly, principals (they are called directors here) get paid the same amount as teachers, and, unlike our system, principals are chosen by the Ministery of Education based on model performance within a school. When teachers are sick, the principal along with the vice principal or what we understand to be the equivalent to the department coach, or a department head that does not have her own classroom, are the substitutes. However, in some cases, the teachers will also cover for each other. It isn’t clear to me how they do this, when, as primary school teachers, they do not have a prep. They eat lunch with the kids, and their “prep” happens after school from 4:30-5:05. Martha says she usually uses that time to reteach a kid who fell behind, clean her classroom, or prepare the materials she will need for the next day. She said teachers work around 10 hours a day, often more, and that they do their preparation and grading at home. They also have to work two Saturdays a month! They ask way too much of them, and pay way too little, if you ask me.

Although Martha should not be considered poor, because she has a job and a place to live, and her kids are in school, one of whom is even a doctor, she is. That’s the tragedy of this system. A teacher in a panel discussion in the beginning of this trip said, “we’re poor, but we’re all poor.” It sounded nice, almost, at the time. But seeing the conditions in which they live, it’s really not very romantic at all. She lives in a slum. Really. We have projects in Sacramento that, at least from the outside, look nicer than the area she lives in. It’s crazy.

So then we asked her about the math curriculum, giving her a few sample problems, and we discovered that our 8^th graders are doing Cuban 4^th grade work (ouch!). We also asked her about curriculum, books, videos, etc., which she said she didn’t have but would mail to us when school started again in September. She was so hospitable. She said she didn’t have much but made us French fries and put out a plate of sliced ham. Especially considering that it was just ham-- which tasted like Vienna Sausages! Though clearly wasn’t-- it felt like such a sincere and sweet gesture. We just couldn’t leave without reciprocating such generosity, so we asked for a list of items she wanted from the U.S. They included cooking oil, a cellphone, size 34 underwear(?), and a fan (so feel free to pass any of these things our way J).

Ahh….what a day of inspiration.

Aileen and Miquila