At the end of the school year – all you need is love

A number of years ago I did some work for El Gaucho restaurant and later for Amazonia Churrascaria. Each year, in late June, we created Spula Krijt adz, just in time for that fantastic Friday, at the end of the academic year, offering teachers a discounted lunch price, on that much-awaited day, when they could finally rinse the chalk off.

Lunch.

I noticed this year, the festivities started at the bars occupying Tourism Plaza from as early at 11am and revolved around drinking, and music.

Teachers must have had a monumental hang-over the following day, because according to my sources the late-night clubs on the RCA Road, Blue Moon, Cas Casuela, were packed to the gills until early in the morning.

No lunch.

From the sidelines it seems to me that there is a lot of push & pull in education, and that the level of frustration among educators is high.

My friends explain that many of our teachers, are in education for themselves, lured by the convenient schedule and the stable pay. They are not in it for the kids. They wait for GOA to renovate buildings, systems, and educational materials instead of being proactive and doing it themselves.

The Dutch newspapers reported just recently that in Aruba’s newest school, teaching materials hail from the 60s, and that the most recent materials are at least 20 years old.

Where is the teacher’s personal responsibility in that? Why stick to useless books? Why can’t you create your own road map? As long as you arrive at the desired destination, you surely have the freedom to improvise. But it takes more prep work.

The level of frustration is made even higher because our MinEdu, a highly intelligent/educated man, comes from an autocratic system, having spent his formative years within the church.

He comes from an arbitrary background. God is not a team player. I can see the built-in problematica there. And he gets plenty of push-back from everyone.

The last example was the strike, of super-sized women, determined to protect their SECOND salary, the one they get from afternoon activities, AFTER teaching school all morning, and perhaps compromising both.

(Conserving their energy in the first part of the day, in order to deal with the afternoon, and grading papers in the pm, in order to keep up with the am.)

And today’s kids are challenging, they are 21st century tech-savvy operators, yet the frontal 20th century teaching leaves them indifferent, and disruptive.

It is harder than ever to teach school, and you have to do it for the kids. Gotta love them, not just that convenient schedule and the stable pay.

Quotes from my friends:

“The most love-hungry student will ask YOU for YOUR love in the most unloving ways.”

“Our kids are pure gold, Aruba’s children are resilient, and pure, give them a little, and they give you A LOT.“

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July 08, 2019
Rona Coster