Perspective

I work with some of the most loving, passionate teachers I have ever met. Our school may  be little, but the hearts of our teachers are great and are overflowing yet with compassion and care for our 158 at-risk children. I often complained about having one or two major “problem children” in my classroom in America. Here, every classroom has at least 10. It takes a lot of heart to work here. Our school has 12 teachers and 14 staff members (from the kitchen, to sponsorship, to the library, to the office staff and administration). Once a month, those of us who are teachers meet for an evening staff meeting which is half Bible study and half administrative meeting. I walked into our last meeting feeling a bit disappointed and discouraged. It had been one of “those weeks” where you feel like nothing is going right, nothing is being accomplished, and you’re moving nowhere, except maybe backwards. I mentioned earlier that our teachers are loving and passionate about serving our students. However, they themselves are products of a failing public education system here in the Dominican Republic. In case you think I’m exaggerating when I use the word “failing,” let me show you some statistics.

The Global Competitiveness Report ranks 148 countries according to different indicators, including education. In the 2013-2014 report, the Dominican Republic ranked 146^th (remember, that’s out of 148 countries) in math and science education. In fact, here are a few startling statistics for you from the most recent study:

Out of 148 countries, the Dominican Republic ranked:

106^th for Quality of Management of Schools

146^th for Quality of Math and Science Education

140^th for Quality of the Education System

146^th for Overall Quality of Primary Education

"Quality of Math and Science Education Rankings"
Compared with Canada's 17th ranking and America's 49th ranking, the Dominican Republic falls towards the very bottom

Here you see Guatemala and the Dominican Republic falling in the 136-146 range

This chart shows the comparison of math and science education rankings for 9 countries in the Western Hemisphere over the past several years. Remember, a lower line means a better ranking (you want to be towards the bottom of this graph, not towards the top). You can see the Dominican Republic's dark green line at the very top of the graph.

Does that shock you? The Dominican Republic was the lowest scoring country in the Western Hemisphere for math and science education and overall quality of primary education. The worst. Including Haiti (which scored worse than the DR in almost every other indicator besides education).

The problem seems overwhelming. I so often ask myself “What in the world am I doing here? It’s not like I can teach the whole country math.” I so often wonder if helping teachers for a couple years will make any sort of lasting impact. I so often question whether or not my skills are useful here or if I should just go back to AZ and work at a low-income school where there’s actually a light at the end of the tunnel.

Let me go back to the beginning of this blog post. Remember those 12 teachers I was talking about? They are the products of #146. They have grown up here, learned here, studied here, and graduated here, all within schools that are ranked the worst in this hemisphere. So although they are considered “proficient” according to the standards of this government, they would be the first to admit that they “just don’t understand math.” They humbly ask me for clarification on what their 3^rd grade math curriculum standards mean. They come to me admitting that they don’t know how to solve a problem in their students’ textbooks. And when your very best, most compassionate and well-intentioned teachers are products of #146, it is easy to look around and believe that there’s no way we will ever produce students who are capable of being successful professionals who can be part of the solution for their town and their country. As I entered our last staff meeting with this discouraging attitude, the Lord began a conversation between a few of our teachers about their parents. The teachers began sharing stories about where and how they grew up. I learned that our school coordinator’s parents only finished 1^st and 3^rd grade and advanced no farther. I learned that our 1^st grade teacher’s mother was illiterate and signed her own name “+++xxx” because she didn’t know how to spell it. I learned that one of our middle school teachers’ mother decided to learn how to read at age 70. I learned that one of our teachers’ fathers went his whole life knowing only how to read and write the few letters in his own name. Almost all of the teachers shared similar stories. I, now the humble one, listened in awe and reverence. You see, my perspective was completely backwards. I wasn’t sitting among a group of people whose education system had failed them. I was sitting among a group of people who were first-generation literate. I was sitting among a group of people who, despite all odds, had learned to read, write, add, subtract, multiply, and divide although there was no one else in their house who could do the same. I was sitting among a group of people who somehow were able to complete homework when they didn’t have electricity, clean water, paper, pencils, or an adult in their home who could help them read directions or write their own name at the top of the page. These teachers are not worthy of my pity. These teachers are worthy of my admiration and respect. These teachers represent one generational step closer to #145, then to # 144, then to #120, then to a ranking in the double-digits. We hope and pray that the future children of our current students are able to say “My parents can help me with my basic math homework. My parents can read me a story before bed. My parents can write a letter to my teacher that is legible.” And we work every day with the Lord’s help, although sometimes we feel like we’re working backwards, to give our kids a quality, holistic education that will enable them to grow into the Christian leaders that #146 this beautiful country needs. 

(If you are interested in supporting our teachers as they strive to better the state of education in the Dominican Republic, please visit my Amazon wishlist for a list of items that our teachers could use in order to be better educators. Thank you to all of you who have already supported our school and our teachers so generously!)