My Champions

Almost every American child is showered with praise on a daily basis.  Honestly, think about it.  Your parents go nuts for the first few steps.  A mother may even cry if she didn’t catch it on tape.  Your teacher goes ga-ga over your wonderfully awful finger paint project, and despite the fact that it looks like you just vomited all over the poster board, it gets proudly displayed on the wall.  Your coach tells you nice shot, even though you’ve missed the goal by a good 20 feet.  Remember all those open houses?  It was just a chance for you to show off your mediocre work to your parents, who always told you what a fantastic job you were doing.  We had countless school plays and musicals that your parents suffered through, maybe even fell asleep during, but in the end all the teachers and parents cheered for an encore.  Although I may be an extreme case, I loved bringing home my report cards, my projects, my papers for everyone to see.  Even if I misspelled every other word in my essay, which is highly probable, my mother would just say “Chelsea, I can’t believe what a beautiful writer you are.”  I loved it.  I needed it.  Why else would I try in school if someone wasn’t there to acknowledge my achievements, my efforts and my awesomeness?  Everyday, our children are told “you can be whatever you want to be.”

Can you imagine never having any of this?  Although I will acknowledge that not every American child is treated in such a way, but I would argue that nearly every American child has encountered an encouraging adult, whether it is a parent, a relative, a teacher, a coach, etc.

Over the past five months, I’ve slowly realized that Ugandan children are starving for attention and positive reinforcement.  While I have very little insight into what happens at home, I have a hunch that few parents are involved with their children’s education.  I doubt that children show their exercise books to their parents when they get every answer correct.  I suspect most children go home after school to do chore after chore without receiving so much as a “well done” because it’s expected of every child to fetch water, wash dishes, cook meals, help with the younger children, etc. 

While I can only speculate about the home front, I can tell you for sure that Ugandan children do not get a self-esteem boost from school.  Honestly, there are days when I can feel my heart breaking as I watch how the children are treated.  Aside from the corporal punishment that is rampant in all Ugandan schools, despite it being “illegal,” children are demoralized on a daily basis.  In class, when a child gives an incorrect answer, it is common for not only the whole class to laugh at them, but for the teacher to join in as well.  Unfortunately, a familiar phrase in any classroom is “what is wrong with you?”  Yesterday, I witnessed a particularly new low.  In a P-7 class, a teacher was reviewing the homework to clarify why some answers were more correct than others.  During the entire lesson, she continued to tell the whole class that Raymond failed miserably.  For further embarrassment for Raymond, but apparently entertainment to the class, she asked him to read all of his incorrect answers.  It made me sick to my stomach.  One particular question was “what do you call a group of lions?”  Poor Raymond had answered, “A pack of wild animals.”  Seemingly reasonable, right?  Not to the teacher.  And her answer was a “troop”!  As much as I wanted to take revenge in the name of Raymond, I let her mistake slide.  For those of you at home that aren’t too well versed in their Lion King vocabulary, the correct answer would have been “pride,” of which the teacher had stripped away from Raymond.

Sadly, I have to come to terms with the fact that I can’t help every child in Uganda, let alone in my center.  Quick statistic: I have at least 15,000 children in my center.  Therefore, I am starting with the pupils in my life skills club, a mere 37 children.  How do you jump-start a child’s self-esteem when they’ve been put down for the last 13-18 years?  Well, I started with a quick “pat on the back” game.  All of the pupils formed a circle with their backs to the center.  I had a few initial volunteers in the center.  When I read a phrase, the ones in the center were asked to appreciate their peers that fit this phrase, such as “Touch someone who is good at English.”  It was a simple activity to show the pupils how good it feels when someone appreciates you, and when you appreciate someone else.  The final phrase was “Touch someone who is going to pass the PLE.”  I ran like a mad woman around the circle to be sure that I tagged all 37 kids on the back.  Everyone needs someone to believe in them.

Once we talked about how good it felt for someone to acknowledge their strengths, I told them that while it’s great to have someone praise you, the most important they need to develop is the ability to appreciate themselves.  They need to be able to see their strengths, their abilities and their worth.  I assigned them a project so they could display their positive qualities to the world.  They had to come up with qualities that they were proud of, and fit them into their name.  For example:

C- chatty

H- honest

E- empathetic

L- laughing

S- sensitive

E- energetic

A-    active

I think you get the idea.  They all had to make rough drafts before they made the final product, which would be on a clean, white piece of paper and decorated using colored pencils.  When the class had finally finished, I passed out the paper and pencils to each table group.  As I walked around, I realized all the children were not starting and just staring at me.  “Well guys, you better start.  We’ve only got so much time!”  “But Madam, what do we do?”  Despite my wonderful example, they still weren’t sure how to start.  After I repeated my directions and with some forceful encouragement, suddenly they were on a roll.  And wouldn’t stop.  For many students, I imagine this was the first time they’ve been able to use colored pencils and asked to do something creative for school.  Soon, the lesson that I predicted would take about 30 minutes to complete was somehow turning into a 90 minute ordeal.  Unbeknownst to me, many of my pupils are extremely artistic, and they poured over every detail.  Finally, I had to put an end to the project, mostly because I was getting worried about the pupils getting home past dark if they had to walk very far.

I didn’t let the pupils take home their masterpieces.  In the back of our classroom, I created a “Wall of Champions.”  Every project was hung in the back of the classroom to remind them during the next six weeks of cramming for their PLE that they can accomplish wonderful things.  I hope this wall will encourage my students to take pride in their work and in themselves.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first time any of their work has ever been displayed.

The next day, my co-teacher approached me.  He had to leave during the middle of our session to attend to some school duties.  During the session, he had been busy designing his own name project as well, but when he saw me, he was discouraged.  “Madam, I saw all of the finished projects.  They look so good!  I don’t think mine will be good enough to be displayed.”  Yes, even the adults struggle with the similar issues of self-esteem and low confidence.

You may be surprised to know that even I couldn’t pass up this photo opportunity.  So, below are the photos of my kids and their wall of champions.  It was definitely the first time that they've had their photo taken.

At first, no one wanted to smile...

I wonder how long all those children have wanted to touch my head...

THE WALL OF CHAMPIONS