A few follow up thoughts on Kelsie's post...Something I have noticed each time I am here is that children do not seem to be taught how to think. Students lack age appropriate problem solving skills and an ability to apply what they have learned outside of rote memorization. They are remembering information and facts but can't think about what things mean. For example, I did a lesson on being a good citizen last time I was here. The attributes were listed, no problem. But when I ask for an example of how they show kindness, I get blank looks. Kelsie had the students in grade three and four read a bible story together (maybe 300 words). There were some discussion questions at the end. They could not dialogue about a single question. They wait for you to tell them.
I have been worried that this is a concern specific to CMA but I have twice heard it from outside people about Liberians in general. When we were staying with Massa, she expressed her frustration over Liberia's inability to change. She said "they only see what is right in front of them" and cannot dream of how the future could be. Then, a day later, we met an American doctor. She is from Wisconsin and has been working at the hospital on the base we are staying for three and a half years. She was brought here to train but spent the first year or so doing all the work. Then she realized they were trying to pull a fast one on her and they could do the work. To an extent, Louise would say. She said a person with a bachelor's degree in the medicine field does not know that one-quarter is the same as .25 and is the same as 25%. I think she put it best when she said "Liberians lack analytics and anticipation." I was glad to hear it wasn't just my judgement deciding they lacked these things.
I don't write this post to make Liberians sound less than smart. They are smart people with so much to offer the world. And my visits make me sad. You have probably heard me say things like this before but I think some of this (at minimum!) has to do with spending a lifetime receiving handouts. Why do any better when I can wait around for my next handout? This is not true of everyone nor is it the whole truth of Liberia, and other developing nations, but I think it is a well-known fact that this is the outcome of aid without requirement or work. It can be witnessed in many developing nations (maybe even, dare I say, in the USA) and read about in a lot of books and scholarly papers. But the wheel of aid keeps churning. Sorry...I am feeling cynical right now (I swing through many moods and mindsets and ideas while I am here). Sometimes, I doubt even what we were are doing just helping to build a school. But all of this is why the school building is our only commitment to help with. Our Liberian friends must make something of it and they assure me that they can and will!
I say all of this as a means of processing because I would never change where we are or my commitment level. I believe in these people and I have hope for the future. It is all God's work to sort out by changing hearts and minds. I am doing the little part I am called to and trying to let go of the rest.