Ahí estoy yo

I might need to just go get certified and teach because being an assistant is starting to get frustrating, especially when there are kids who sit through an entire class without a book or activity while the rest of us are working.

Today, Christopher, a 5 year old who has no English book, sat at his desk while we were doing an activity. Of course he is bored so he starts to play with markers (at one point they are stuck to his lip and dangling out of his mouth), stands on his chair, talks incessantly, and then bangs on his desk. Obviously this distracts the other students and they begin to talk as well. What does the teacher do? He ignores him and tells other kids to be quiet. I follow along with this, thinking maybe his method of dealing with him is ignoring him. But Christopher doesn't stop. The entire hour this goes on. So he ends up leaving with the principal and comes back at the end of the class with part of his book colored. As far as I know this happens every day until he gets suspended and spends a few days at home, which for us means a few days without distractions.

But what worries me the most is the fact that it is normal to let a kid sit there and do nothing for an hour. In no way would that be permissible in the U.S. (if you know of a school that would allow that, please let me know) and it pains me to sit here and watch these kids, the majority of them gitanos from lower class families.

Fernando, another gitano, arrives at school and smells like he hasn't bathed and looks exhausted because he hasn't eaten breakfast. It is not surprising when I ask him a question in English and he has no idea what I am saying.

Then there are students like Bori, a 7 year old girl whose parents are from Africa. She is already speaking in full sentences and I am probably correct in assuming that English is her third language.

Oh and then there is Ciro, an 8 year old in my 3rd grade class. We were doing an activity about Jupiter. "If you were to fly to Jupiter, what are ten things you would bring?" While other kids were asking me how to say "my friends" or "a pizza" he was asking me to translate "astronaut suit", "solar panels" and "electricity".

The gaps are astounding, and it seems as though there is either little awareness of what to do, or little drive to bridge the gap. But then again, I guess it would be hard to try when the support of the parents is pretty much absent.