Wednesday, June 16, 2010

school garden

So I´ve been doing a garden with the 4th graders of one of my schools. I´ve been teaching them in the classroom for about 4 weeks every friday. So the ministery of education here wants every school to have a garden here to teach kids nutrition and gardening and whatnot, it´s a pretty good idea. Some schools just hire ppl to make them for the shcool and some schools make them theirselves (i think it´s best if they do it theirselves and of course let the kids do it).
The school I´m doing it with is a city school with no land to plant a garden on in the school grounds, so when i mentioned the project about doing one they got really excited since they didn´t have one and it´s something they should have. We found a place to do it (behind the principals house) and last week we went out to make the tablones (raised seed beds). That´s all we had time to do, hopefully this week we can plant some stuff and transplant the seeds we planted 3 weeks ago in almacigos (transplant boxes).

yesterday i went to the school and the vice principal told me she, another teacher and a parent were going back to redo the tablones because.... they´re not pretty enough!!! they have this thing in their head that each raised bed needs to be exactly the same hieght and width and of course, has to look lindo (pretty). I wasn´t to shocked because, well it´s something I would expect here, but still disapointed. The kids (kinda) made the garden and i feel that they should be proud of their work, not be told that it´s being redone because it doesn´t look pretty enough. I guess it´s the whole social idea of conformism instead of individualism here in PY, ideas left over from the dictatorship. Everyone and everything should be more or less the same. (That´s why cheating on tests is ok, so long as everyone passes together to the next grade)

But the farther they get away from the dictatorship i´m sure the more that will change.

Here´s some pics!


2 comments:

  1. So sorry the kids' garden didn't make the cut. I'm sure they did a great job.

    I don't know how we've managed to live in the same town and not pass each other in RG or the plaza, but we live in Barrio San Jose if you're ever craving some English conversation and the occasional imported American food. And you can laugh at my attempts at Guarani... I think it'd have to be better to be laughed at by an American than by the Paraguayans all the time. Ha. Swing by and see us!

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  2. LORA! I miss you... :(

    I'm so glad that you seem to be having a good time down there, and I am exceptionally proud of you and what you're doing. So, you need to start sending me some emails and pictures!

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