In my school

on Saturday, July 28, 2012
In some ways, teaching at LifeBridge is just like teaching at any other school.  The bathrooms are gross, the food is bad, and kids are coughing all over you and hanging on you like monkeys.  Teaching in a school full of Muslim children, however, is completely different than anything I've ever taught before.  A few observations:

Most of my students rock back and forth whenever they read.  They also like to sing the words they are reading.  They learned this in madrasah, where they learn to recite the Koran.  Swaying and singing are apparently part of their training!  It's all fine by me, as long as they are still learning to read!

Children are much more subdued when fasting.  I know I shouldn't be grateful that these kids have to fast from all food and water during Ramadan (which just started last week), but it does make my job a whole lot easier when they're sitting down nicely instead of jumping up and down and running around the room like they usually are.  I don't lose my patience over sleepy children as much as I do the rambunctious ones.

And last but not least, the biggest insult that one child can give to another is to call them a pig.  It seems kind of silly (as far as where I come from) when I hear it but I have to remember what that really means to them.  It's bad!


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