It Takes a Village…

One of the challenges I’ve been struggling with is stopping my counterpart from spending, what I think of as wasted time, lecturing students individually in Azerbaijani in the middle of class for minutes at a time. If a student doesn’t do their homework or talks in class, she goes on a rant in Azerbaijani while the other students look on. This doesn’t happen in American classrooms. Teachers do not spend a lot of time reprimanding one student. It was so frustrating in the beginning. Now, fortunately, she does this less although it still happens frequently. I used to feel sympathy for the students and resentment towards my counterpart when this occurred. I came to a realization today though. I realized that while this kind of discipline would never work in the American education system, it does to a certain degree work here. I still don’t believe it is the most effective or efficient form of teaching, but in this context, it’s worth trying to consider it as almost necessary.

Today one of my 6^th form boys had a stomach ache. He sat in his chair wincing, holding his torso. Könül, my counterpart, asked him what was wrong. When he told her, she asked him why he didn’t go home earlier. He responded that the form teacher (think homeroom teacher) didn’t give him permission. Könül told him to go home. “Go straight home,” she said.  My mind began to turn. This scenario would have never happened in the States. Where was the trip to the school nurse, the call to his parents, his waiting in the principal’s office while his parents left work to pick him up with a bottle of children’s Pepto, Red Punch Gatorade, and Saltines in hand?

Könül made a decision for the student that an American parent would have to make for their child. An American teacher would not be able to decide that. Here, it’s completely acceptable. No questions asked. Teachers call their students “my daughter,” “my son,” and “menim balam,” my honey as a term of endearment. Relationships are close here. Teachers talk to parents all the time. They don’t just wait for the yearly parent/teacher conference. They see each other at the bazaar, on the street, and call each other on their house phones. The problem is, the adults all talk to each other, but somehow the communication lines do not run back down to the student.

I just read this book called Outliers which discusses how social and cultural backgrounds and the advantage of being in the right place at the right time provide a foundation for success. It described a study of certain parenting techniques. One method was to be incredibly involved in the child’s activities and using everyday events to create a teaching opportunity. Think soccer mom. The second is to let a child “naturally” grow in his or her environment freely. This means less involvement, less supervision. The Azerbaijani parenting method is most definitely, unequivocally the latter. I see 5 year old kids walking by themselves and playing in the street. Let me just say here that the book emphasizes that neither is better or worse and I’d agree to that. In general, Azerbaijani youth are more polite and well-behaved and do not need constant attention or reward. However, in the academic sense, it’s unfortunate. The concerned parents will ask how their child is doing and the teacher will discuss it with them. But the parent will not help or ask about the child’s work. They might yell and punish their kid for receiving a bad mark but if asked what their child is learning in their classes, they will not know.

I’m not saying that I should start yelling and scolding my students. I come from a very different cultural background in which that kind of discipline does not prove to be effective. My teachers didn’t chew me out when I did poorly in my classes; my parents did. What happens to children who don’t have parents who give them the discipline at home? They get it from somewhere else. I’m not advocating or disproving this kind of classroom conduct. I just think it’s important to look at the entire environment here. It’s all relevant. A child really does need a village here and that village most definitely includes educators.