Arogance

Mantasoa from the hilltop

 Tuesday, 11 April 2023 (58)

We are well into language review - going over all the basics and literally studying for the LPI (the language test which is a week from Thursday). Rindra and I went out and spoke with several people with the idea of getting me to hear some questions when it comes from another person and their accent. I can't say it worked well. I am probably comprehending what is being asked of me a third of the time and unfortunately, people only understand me about have the time. I still have a tendency to ask phases and incomplete sentences.

I do think we have nailed down the phrases I plan to use as well as be on the lookout for specific words and questions that likely will be used to ask me for more details - about my experience here, about my host family, or about the training.

This afternoon we had a session on instructional design. I did my best not to let my forty years of teaching in church, at BYU, at Intermountain Healthcare, my degree in instructional science and unfinished masters in mass communications, my textbook videos, my third world dental health, and other instructional videos through the years get the best of me.

It's an hour of two on how to put together instruction. When will the years and years of experienced teaching occur that actually give these guys real knowledge about teaching? 

We were separated into groups and given a chance to put together a 10 minute presentation on diarrhea. I bought up the possibility that we let some of the mothers speak and bring up some of the causes as well and cures they have discovered over the years. I was shot down saying that I was too confident in thinking the mothers had any real answers. I wonder how a young American Peace Corps volunteer with no specific training in healthcare, with no children can be arrogant enough to think they know more about the causes, local treatments, and motivations more than a mother who has been raising children for years.

Sure we can bring modern medicine and practices into this - as if we knew all best practices and modern medicine. We know what the few hours of instruction the Peace Corps has given us. Sure we can correct bad information, or give information when none has been received or known. But to think mothers haven't had to deal with this and we have all the answers is BS. These guys don't know their audience, they don't know how to teach, and they certainly aren't going to be successful - if they don't tap into a culture and people who know a lot more than they think they do.

They aren't teaching an ignorant people. They are teaching people who have more mothering skills and knowledge than they do - and the sooner one realizes that and taps into it the better.