My School Volunteering Experience Didn’t Work Out for Me Except for the Most Important Part: My Precious Students

 

The cover image reminded me of many heartwarming moments I shared with my students. Witnessing the sparkling eyes, pure smiles, and bursts of laughter had the power to make my heart dance!

When I was preparing for my volunteering trip to Brazil, I had to take into consideration two major factors:

• What the program is about. Three topics stood out: environment, animals’ shelter, and education (schools). I had another topic of interest — a sort of rehab for psychologically abused kids — but I couldn’t find any fit.

• The schedule. It took a considerable amount of reflection time before making my mind. My decision to spend the longest period at the school program was motivated by a simple reason:

Kids/teenagers are the future adults. If they are guided to stay connected to the servant leader they are, then they would naturally take care of the environment and animals.

My students are aged 13 to 17. I was welcomed warmly and with tons of enthusiasm. No matter how much I try to describe how privileged I was feeling every session for being their teacher, my words wouldn’t give enough credit to reality.

My purpose was to be loyal as much as possible to the educational system I imagined and shared some time ago here, and I hope I was successful to some extent. This is an extract from the article:

A reformed educational system-centric to the fundamental principles of relationship building, consideration, and integrity could make the neighborly chat over the fence an entirely different conversation.

There would be no need to plan your residence area depending on your search for the most suitable school anymore.

We need to represent the fairness principle carefully. Similar educators’ qualifications. Similar educational means. Similar pedagogy, etc. What is that supposed to create?

Nurturing the kids’ core values which have been vehiculated to them by their parents. Observing the alignment between what they were told and its execution in their schools is creating a sort of faith in the world’s goodness!

Sadly enough, I had a conflict with my hostess — the owner of the school. Before joining the program, she asked me openly whether it would be a problem to volunteer in a private school.

My answer was straightforward, “It should not be a problem if I am granted enough flexibility for the methodology. I want to prepare them for life, not merely teach English.”

Additionally, my hostess was aware of two important details: I needed to work on some freelance projects and exercise, as well. That was the deal.

Appealingly, it was great for two weeks. The first one was light. It was a sort of training. I attended my hostess classes, met the students, watched her teach, and intervened when it seemed appropriate.

Also, I suffered from serious diarrhea because of all the medication my stomach administrated in a too short period. I went through the details here, should you feel interested. Thus, I didn’t have enough energy to focus and work.

The second week was manageable because I started working and exercising very slowly. It wasn’t until the third week that I came to realize how much workload it was for a volunteer.

I had eight different groups of two hours each. Even if we suppose that I didn’t have to prepare for my classes not even for 5 minutes, being wholeheartedly invested for 16 hours would have left not enough room for:

• My freelance projects,
• Exercising,
• Self-care,
• My time with my furry kid,
• Needless to talk about discovering my environment or connecting with the locals, as the position stipulated.

Furthermore, the theoretically planned preparation time was unrealistic. Simply put, I finished the third week feeling like a zombie and made sure to talk to my hostess about it in a transparent way.

At no moment, was I trying to ‘defy’ her authority. I am not even an employee. Interestingly, I was not micro-managed when I used to work for multinational corporates.

If you've come this far, maybe you might enjoy my upcoming free eBook about the whole tale! I'll be honored if you decide to stop by!