I Guess Children are Not Evil After All

I realize I haven't had much of an online presence recently, but that's probably because I've been hibernating in my room and not doing anything when I haven't had to.

To compensate, I'll regale you instead with another snippet from Taiwan. As you know, it was a volunteering program in which we taught elementary children English for a couple weeks. This is a portion of my evaluation we were asked to write:

The first few days of classes were chaotic. The students backtalked, made cutting remarks, ignored everything, rebelled. I must admit I was taken aback with the ferocity in their refusals. We spent nights revising our teaching materials and days attempting to keep order. During the afternoon period allotted for students to nap, they swarmed outside to play and we collapsed in the classrooms in exhaustion, only to be woken when they returned.

It was not pretty, but things changed.

Over the course of the two weeks, the students grew to respect us and we them. It had been a no small feat, securing that respect. But once that mutual respect had been established, we found that most of them could be interested, willing to learn. We began to find them endearing.

One day, a few of our students dragged us out to see their meadow.

They showed the patch of cacti (prickly pear? no idea.), then taught us how to harvest the fruit, grind down the spines, and eat them.

There will be more from Taiwan another time. (Unless, of course, you'd rather I write about something else. In that case, let me know. No offense taken.)

That's it this week from an overwhelmed student. Until next time...