Happy Valentine´s Day

Today I went with the people who work with Environment at the Camara to talk to kids at the Jardin Infantil (pre-school) about the environment and color pictures of turtles (Maio has an endangered species of turtle that they are trying to protect and keep people from eating- yes apparently turtle is delicious), clean streets(throw trash in containers) , animals in corals (keep animals away from houses since their feces, etc can make people sick- good thing there are wandering goats, chickens, cows and pigs on the street all the time), and plants being planted. We were supposed to go to Pedro Vaz for the triip but the teacher in charge of the Jardin was sick so then we headed to the next town, Alcatraz, where again the teacher was sick. We finally ended up in Figueira (two more towns over) and waited for an hour for lunch time to be over and did our activity with the kids. I was happily surprised to see that the Jardin in Figueira had toys and materials to do activities. The kids were really cute. Just from the coloring activity I learned a lot about the way they teach young kids here. So first of all, the kids that were there were between ages 2 and 5. We had these pictures for them to color, kind of like how you’d color a coloring book. I don’t know about you, but when I was between 2 and 5, I don’t think I was told that I needed to color a tree green and brown, a pig pink, the sky blue, a sun yellow, etc. Yes, those are the colors that are correct but I think in Ameriica at that age, you are encouraged to use your creativity and if you want to have a multi-colored turtle, a green sky, and a purple sun, you were encouraged. Here things are a little different. There were 3 other people who came from Vila, the teacher, and me. So they kept going around and making sure that the kids were coloring each thing the proper color. Then, on top of that (remember these kids are between the ages of 2 and 5), they were supervised on coloring in the lines. Ok, I know that coloring in the lines should be expected of maybe 10 year olds but there is a big difference between a 5 year old and a 10 year old. And then, after they finished coloring, they were told to write their names, ages, and Figueira on their papers. I don’t think I knew how to write my name at age 5, especially in a straight line without writing at least one letter backwards. So the teacher (and “helpers”) went around with an eraser and erased letters when the kids didn’t have them lined up with the others. Oh, and did I mention they were all writing in cursive. I don’t think I learned cursive until at least the 3rd or 4th grade. So I had a good experience but I think there might be a little bit of unnecessary pressure put on these kids at such an early age. I don’t know if this is specifically a Cape Verdian thing or came from Portugal’s education system but it is very different from what I grew up with. Tomorrow, I’m helping again but we’re going to a different town. Over the next few weeks, we’ll go to every Jardin in Maio to talk about the environment and color our pictures.