In Another Light

Sarah Landskron (U.S.A.)

Contributor

If would have asked me a year ago, teaching a class in Tanzania hadn’t even crossed my mind. But when I started travelling, I was missing the kids and really struggling with not seeing their smiling faces. I wanted to get that experience back. 

Teaching here, I’ve seen that children are children and they all have that innocence and want to learn, no matter where they are from. They all like to laugh, they like to sing and dance and have fun. They are little sponges and they soak up all the information. Life hasn’t broken them down. They are still so impressionable. Even when they make mistakes and do something they are not supposed to do, it’s just part of their learning process. It’s just them figuring life out. 

The experiences that the kids are coming with here in Tanzania are so different. In the U.S. there are kids from low socio-economic classes, but it’s completely different than the poverty in Tanzania. The discrepancies are so large. The teaching resources are lacking here. I’ve learned how to get creative. I want to provide them with hands-on learning and try to give them a different learning experience than they are used to. 

I’ve also noticed that some of the kids here are more tired and some fall asleep during the lesson. But I don’t know what goes on at home. I can’t fault them. The school does a good job to make sure they have porridge in the morning which helps keep their energy up. But the home support is not always there, for many reasons. It could be because the parents have to work or they only speak Swahili and they can’t help with English work. 

The discipline style is very different. The kids here in Tanzania respond to yelling and a very strict environment, so when I go in and teach I don’t yell and the negative behaviours come out more. But they also don’t know me that well yet so they try to get away with things that they normally wouldn’t try. 

When I return to the U.S. I’ll definitely be thankful for all the resources and supplies that schools have. I’m learning other classroom management skills that work here that I can take back and use with my future classes. I’ve had to be flexible and understand that there is more than one way to approach a problem. It’s definitely changed my life and made me view education and teaching in another light. I’ll always have that.