Week 1: Phnom Penh

Written on Friday, April 30...
I am nearing the end of my first week of volunteering as a teach here in Phnom Penh. I am exhausted and spend more than my fair share of the day feeling confused. I keep reminding myself of something the headmaster told me a few nights ago, "It is not about you."

She was referring to the change in dynamics between my previous jobs and this position as a teacher. In my career, it was always about meeting objectives and doing my best to make a good name for myself and advance my career. Volunteering as a teacher in this Montessori school means putting the children and their learning first. The philosophy of the school is for teachers to provide a framework to help the children educate themselves and find their own interests. It is a great philosophy.

I have been challenging myself to think what would be best for the children and what would make learning more fun. I am not sure that is the aim for all of the teachers, though. There are some very real practicalities like discipline and basic safety that necessitate teachers to step in and limit or steer what the children are doing. It is also quite easy, though, to get lazy as a teacher. It is pretty easy to justify sitting back and watching the kids do whatever they want or letting a toddler cry unrelentingly all in the name of teaching the child to help herself.

It has been great to see an environment where the approach is to let a child explore a toy or topic or activity instead of just jumping to dictate directions or a list of instructions. It is fascinating to stop and ask a child what they are thinking or why or why not they want to do an activity and hearing their responses. Sometimes a child's answer is really interesting and surprisingly informed. Sometimes a child's pushback is very justified and sometimes they are just rebelling for the sake of it.

The lack of structure that this philosophy naturally leads to can be really frustrating and, in this school's case where I think it has just slipped a little too far, can be incredibly inefficient and ineffective for a child's development. I can't speak to the entirety of the Montessori way, but this one seems mired down by its lacking administrative organization and budgetary control.

Two more weeks to go...I am leading the morning circle with the nursery kids, teaching Level 1 English in the morning, and helping/teaching swimming all afternoon.