Education

Two weeks ago, the students from Seeds started school. After the first day of class, they arrived at Seeds with their school supply lists, which include large quantities of items that the kids would never be able to afford. Some teachers asked the kids to buy packs of poster board, multiple rulers and compasses, special clothes, and dozens of laminas, which are laminated pages with definitions and diagrams that can only be found in special bookstores. The unfortunate part is that most of these things are hard to find and even harder to afford. Luckily, Seeds is able to provide the kids with school uniforms and basic supplies, but this covers only the bare minimum.

On top of the pricey supply requests from teachers, the kids are assigned homework that is even more of a joke. Apparently, a few years ago the Peruvian government passed an initiative to improve the nation’s education. As a result, they imposed ridiculously high standards on students, especially secondary students, in hopes of augmenting learning. And what does this mean for our students? It means that Kati, a seventh grader, has economics homework asking her to comprehend the three sectors of economic activities—something that most students learn in tenth grade. It also means that ten-year-old Belizario, a second grader, has pages and pages of letters to copy to improve his handwriting even though he still cannot read.

Although the schools here mandate high standards for their students, they do not seem to reinforce these standards with proper instruction. As a result, the students suffer greatly in comprehension—arguably the most important part of education. For example, even after doing economics homework for two days, Kati had no concept of what she was learning. She would read a question out loud, read the answer out loud, and then look at me and ask, “Now what do I write?” She had good intentions of doing the homework, but her situation for actual comprehension of the material was bleak. Her teacher did not explain anything; her homework was way over her head; and she had no prior experience in the subject. On top of it, Kati has parents who, like the majority of the parents of the kids at Seeds, are illiterate. So they can’t do much to help her out, and her only other option for learning is Seeds.

Though Peru’s education system is sometimes said to be one of the best in Latin America, it does not seem to have tricked down all the way to the poorest children in the department of Ancash or its capital of Huaraz. Perhaps some students are successful if they have the right resources, but the schools that our students attend do not offer these resources. The schools swear by their own high standards, but they do not give proper instruction in how to reach these standards. So the poorest, most helpless kids suffer. And those are the kids who come to Seeds.

The up side of all of this is that Seeds is doing very important work and truly making a difference. Even in the two months I have been here, I have seen some of the kids make incredible progress: Belizario is finally starting to read; Estefani is becoming more confident in her writing and speech; Adrian is becoming more focused with his work; and Bladimir is excelling greatly in upper-level mathematics. Seeds of Hope not only gives the kids a place to study outside of their one-room, dirt-floored houses, but also gives the kids continued support in education that they do not receive from any other avenue.

At Seeds of Hope, there are fifty kids who now have a chance to succeed in the future.

Anne Marie