Poverty From The Eyes of a teacher in Yap
This week I interviewed a teacher named Ashley who is
currently teaching in the island of Yap.
Yap is located is located in the western Caroline Islands, today part of
the Federated States of Micronesia, about 850 miles east of Mindanao in the
Philippines. I asked Ashley about the
poverty there. Although compared to the
United States, it would seem impoverished; most people that live there do not
see themselves in that way. Most make
their living from fishing and are able to make enough income to buy basic necessities
and although they live in small shacks made out of tin, they consider themselves
to have what they need. In the classroom
there is still a disparity between the “haves and the have-nots.” While a few sported IPADs, some students lacked
transportation and so they could not stay for much needed tutoring after school
or participate in school events that required money. Some lacked basic supplies because they had
to wait until their parents got paid, which in the fishing business fluctuated. She described her main challenges as having
limited supplies and dual language learners.
Supplies such as printing paper and ink were very limited so she had to
get very creative in her lesson planning and was not able to send things
home. In addition to this she had some
students this year that did not speak a word of English. She found that one of the strategies in
helping the students learn was to relate everything to the fishing
culture. She noticed that all of the
pictures showed boats and water and fish, so she used real life examples such
as how many fish were gathered and sold to teach addition and subtraction. She explained even though she did the best
she could, she could have done a better job if she had more resources and
help. Even though some of her students
came to school hungry it would be frowned upon if she were to feed them. In this culture children as young as 7 years
old are expected to get up at 5:30, make their own rice and draw their own
water for hygiene. Students that came to
school hungry or dirty were considered “lazy,” and needed to learn the lesson
by the hunger pains and being made fun of by other students for their
appearance. Ashley observed that these
students did not do as well when hungry and it affected their learning. She feels she did her best this past school
year, but reflects that there is so much more that she would need to do in
order to reach out to those who do not have the emotional or academic support
that they need at home.
I have learned that even though it may look different in
different areas, poverty still has the same affect regardless which is the
student not getting equal access and opportunities. I also have gained an appreciation of the
tools we have here in the United States for overcoming poverty that are not as
easily available in other areas.
