A New Ecology

For the last two days, schools in all of Honduras have been closed. People have been asked to stay in their homes until there is some political resolution. Although the curfew has been lifted, things are still unstable. Our school is closed until Monday. The ‘Crisis Politica’ has been a disappointment for many reasons.

Janelle and Ruth are two of these reasons. The curfew interfered with the presentations they prepared for AP Literature.

At the beginning of the term, I gave students topics that seemed random to them at the time but apply to texts that we deal with later on: intellectual freedom, plagiarism in colleges, human geography of Italy in 1300, socialism in 1950, Jim Crow Laws, etc. They meet with me two weeks before their presentation to get resources and suggestions. They meet with me again one week before their presentation to tweak and blend their work into the course.

This week Janelle and Ruth were scheduled to present on Old and Middle English (kennings, boasts, forms) and Canterbury Cathedral. This is the beginning of Chaucer. They were prepared and excited to share what they discovered. When school was canceled on Tuesday, I got an email from Janelle: “Ms. I was so ready for today. I didn’t tell you, but I found this recording of some old guy reading Beowulf. Sounds so bad.” When the curfew extended to Wednesday, I got an email from Ruth with no message, just a “:(” and one attachment. The attachment was a map of the Canterbury Cathedral with a class picture from our Ning representing all of us locked inside. I had to laugh.

While I have been literally locked inside my apartment, I have been wondering if there is a solution for Honduras and if I have a future here as a US citizen and teacher at an international school. These student emails made me realize how much I love my job. Just like Ruth and Janelle, I am sad that I don’t get to teach this week. I’m lucky enough to be as ready for and excited about teaching all of my classes as they are about Chaucer. Despite everything that’s going on, I would rather be at school with them than pondering and watching UN speeches all day.

I have three (hopefully not more) days to continue thinking about students’ (and teachers’) right to education. I can’t fathom how a struggling government in a struggling country can close schools and shut down commerce. Honduras cannot wait two months (until the election) to go back to school or even to begin hope for some stability that makes attendance at school feasible for all students.

Not only do we need to get back to school to read Chaucer, we need to get back to school because it is the one thing that gives students in Honduras autonomy from their parents messy lives and the opportunity to leave. While it is important to have educated people here, they have to go abroad to become educated further. Whether or not they return is an entirely different blog post. While Janelle, Ruth and I are eager for school to resume, college essays are filling up my inbox. Other students are using their time at home to assert their right to an education looking forward, by discussing 1984 on our class Ning and getting caught up with other school assignments.