Talkin' About Ethics

Habari to all back in the U.S. (and Ecuador!) Time has been absolutely flying by here in Kenya and I am finally getting a chance to post some of my older blogs. I've enjoyed reading about everyone else's internships; I miss the days of class with all of you!

Two days a week I help at the school that the kids here at the orphanage attend, in the pre-unit class (like our preschool level). From what I've experienced, the teacher holds her children to a high standard and also really loves them, but she is a firm believer in corporal punishment and explicitly threatens the kids on a daily basis. I've never seen her hit a child, but she tells me about it proudly and yesterday told the kids that she would skin them alive if they didn't quiet down. I have heard her make many other threats to the children that are even more violent than this.

Adding to the struggle of this situation, there is a significant cultural difference between how Americans view corporal punishment and how Kenyans do. For many here, being hit at home or at school is simply a normal and expected part of life. Shortly after arriving at First Love, some of the girls asked me if I had ever been caned in school and were shocked to find out that I had never been hit at school (or at home). Also contributing to my frustration, the classroom teacher holds great respect from the children but only out of fear. The kids have figured out by now that I am not going to hit them or even threaten to hit them, and because of this they really don't respect me. Occasionally when the classroom teacher leaves me alone with them, the class quickly dissolves into chaos, and I feel a bit powerless since I do not use the reigning power-tactic, which is threats and violence.

This is a big struggle for me because I don't believe in corporal punishment under any circumstances. Since I am at the school just to help out, I have no real authority at the school or in the classroom and since I've never actually seen the teacher carry out any of her threats, I'm not even sure how to respond to this. I continue to pray for patience and gentleness with the teacher, and have decided to respect her and the way she wants to run her classroom unless I actually see one of her threats carried out.