"Here's how you can help: Teach these kids math. In Spanish."

My first visit to an Ecuadorian school was a great experience. I delivered supplies to local schools with a couple from Colorado, who have started a nonprofit to raise funds and supplies for schools in the Napo region of Ecuador. My job was mostly to carry boxes, but to my surprise, I ended up being asked to speak to the kids (of elementary school age). I was afraid that I didn't know enough Spanish to say anything coherent to the kids, but I found the words to tell them that they were my first school friends in Ecuador, and that I hoped they found the new supplies useful for all of their studies. "School is very important. I was proud of you for being here and working hard." Hopefully they caught the message that my Spanish ability prevented me from conveying more poignantly!

My first visit as a teacher’s helper was to a place affectionately referred to as ‘the bad school’ by most of the volunteer teachers. Monte Alegre School’s resources are far less than other schools in the area; as a result, there is less structure and less supervision, and the kids tend to misbehave. Before I visited Monte Alegre, a volunteer teacher named Phil told me a story to illustrate. The previous week, one of Phil's students had brought a parrot to school, and sat at his desk plucking out the bird's feathers during class. Phil told me from the looks of things, it was unlikely that the bird would live for very long. He told the boy that he was hurting the parrot; 'we need to take care of animals.' But the message didn't sink in; the boy took the parrot home that afternoon. Even being the animal-lover that I am, the unfortunate reality is that there wasn't much else that Phil could do.

Monte Alegre's school is a one-room building, marked by a rectangular sign hanging by one of its corners. Inside, the room is split in half by two groups of desks facing in opposite directions (older/younger students). The desks are wooden, painted aquamarine, and can fit 2 students at each. When Phil and I arrived at school, about 15 kids were gathered outside -- I assumed it was recess. The lead teacher came to meet me, and as I spoke with her, a little girl, maybe about 6 years old, held my hand. I noticed 5 boys playing soccer next to the school, and another little girl, maybe 7 years old, peeled an orange. She used a large knife and had the skill of an adult; as I watched her in amazement, I realized that after school many of these kids probably go home to prepare dinner and care for younger siblings as if they were parents themselves.

Within minutes of my arrival, the teacher asked if I could help tutor math for the day. Math? I’m not the greatest math student anymore; I definitely can’t teach math in Spanish, I thought. Trying to be not only flexible but confident, I went with it, despite the limited math and Spanish vocabularies that I have. I spent my first hour teaching the greater than, less than, equal to concepts and symbols to 5th graders. I worked one-on-one with one girl, who repeatedly gave me both of the possible answers to each question I asked. She was struggling with the material, and I went over and over the problems with her. The more that we worked on the problems, the more my goal moved from teaching her the concept, to giving her the confidence to pick one answer definitively. The difficulties of this school and the challenges facing its teachers were becoming readily apparent.

Eventually, a little boy from the younger side of the room came over and listened in as I continued to explain the concepts. He seemed interested, so I didn't want to force him to go back to his usual side of the room. As we went through the exercises the boy started to give answers t o the problems, as well. And 9 times out of 10, he was correct. Furthermore, he could explain why he’d chosen each correct answer. He was in the 4th grade, and I was impressed. Knowing he needed to stay with his class, but not wanting to ask the boy to return to his usual side of the room without acknowledging his ability, I praised him for being such a good student and took a few minutes to talk to him about his favorite subjects (one of which was math). When I went back over to the 5th grade side of the room, I noticed the him looking at us, obviously wanting to join in again. This boy had really made an impression on me. On the way home from school that day, I described the boy to Phil. ‘You know who that is right?’ But I didn’t. Phil said, ‘That’s the kid who had the bird last week.”