HORIZONS COSTA RICA SERVICE LEARNING ABLOG: Jessica Huemmer- May 17, 2013

Imagine rowdy, screaming children running up and down the halls of a public elementary school. It’s a teacher’s worst nightmare, right? Well, that’s pretty much how it is at Escuela San Felix Arcadio Montero, the school that I’m volunteering at. And believe it or not, it’s not such a bad thing.

My name is Jessica, and I just finished my first year at Purdue studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. I certainly didn’t expect to be helping teach English at a public school in Costa Rica, but I love it. The kids are rowdy and rambunctious, like how kids are supposed to be. They’re also very warm and friendly, and love to talk and ask you questions. If you ever want to feel like a celebrity, I’d suggest teaching English for a week in Costa Rica. (You walk down the hallway and you’re surrounded by your fans all wanting to talk to you at the same time. I haven’t had time to finish eating lunch for the past three days because all these different kids kept talking to me and the others volunteers.)

There may not be much order and discipline, but these kids are doing amazing things, things I’ve never seen kids back in the US do. All of this week the kids were running their own political campaigns for the election of student body president. There were three different parties, each with their own campaign flag and headquarters. They painted their flags and symbols on the faces of their supporters, held marches during recess, chanted and cheered and threw out hand-made freebies (paper glasses, paper headbands, string bracelets) to secure the votes of their peers. And they did all this without an adult or teacher standing in the background supervising or running the entire process!

Of course it’s noisy and exhausting. Ten hours a day in any school would be tough. But these kids give off so much positive energy that I hardly notice how tired I am until I get home. So far this has been a very positive experience for me, and I love it.

Jessica