Having spent almost seven weeks in the small and secluded fishing village of San Crisanto, Yucatán, I can say the job of a novice teacher in a foreign country is no easy pursuit. As a teacher in the state and country of your birth you know the social and cultural context and from there you can relate more easily to students. However, in a different cultural and lingual setting, you find you must change your physical appearance, language, and behavior in order to establish a fundamental trust and understanding between you and your students.
Appearance is important because it is the first initial step to understand and relate to your perspective environmental activists. Unfortunately, appearances can only take you so far before you need to start learning how to think and act like all the others. Very funny, but true. If you want to reach a group you must understand how they think and act in order to explain your front, proposal, or call to action.
As a teacher in a foreign country, like a humble traveler, you follow the saying, "When in Rome do as the Romans do," because as a stranger on their turf you risk your chances of survival and progress if you happen to say or do something forbidden and incredibly disrespectful. So my advice to you in a foreign country: fake it until it feels right because at first you won't understand, you won't like it, and you'll find ways to critique everything. Shockingly, as you learn to think and act as the “Romans,” you'll understand and maybe develop a respect and love for the culture or group you are working with.
Now that I have pondered this issue, quite obsessively, if I may add, the main barrier it isn't culture, setting, or language. Cultural differences can create huge barricades between groups, but the largest barrier to an environmental conscience is the home environment. I could be simplifying the issue, but I have seen the same exact behaviors play out in my own community of Medomak Valley, a host of mid-coast towns in the state of Maine. Like in San Crisanto I saw a pattern between the family conditions of students and how they performed in school. The weaker the presence of the parents in the lives of the students, or the more toxic the relationship between the parents and their children the more I saw negative or destructive behavior in the classroom. Who is left to decipher and remedy these issues?
The teacher.
Having grown up in a troubled family, I found refuge and confidence in my favorite high school teachers. Luckily, I had teachers that believed in me and showed me the love I longed for in my family. Thanks to my teachers I expanded my perspectives on life and I learned new ideas and concepts. Though, most importantly, the faith and love of my teachers showed me how to empower my students to create positive social change in San Crisanto: change capable of changing social plights of families and ignorance within communities drowning in poverty, hopelessness, and socio-environmental atrophy.
Socio-environmental atrophy is an incredibly complex and stubborn disease-like state for communities. For me, it is the most potent in small towns with little money, a very small perspective of the environment and the world at large, and many social issues such as alcoholism, child and spouse abuse, and high pregnancy rates. In many ways, it is like a disease because it attacks the mental and physical health of communities from many sides. The access to healthy and organic food, social and health services, and decent education is almost nonexistent.
Children in these communities at times are scared, seek hope, and someone that can direct them. How can we turn this around? We teach love, compassion, determination, hard work, and the environment, something I like to call a self and environmental conscience. When we make education and how we share information personal we build a platform in which we can talk at the same level in confidence about social and environmental issues that hinder the education and capacity of students and their communities.
When we open up a space to discuss some of the darkest conflicts that occur amongst students, parents, and communities we open a huge dusty door to a room full of potential. Potential, with the capacity to identify issues and improve family interactions and socio-environmental health.
Special thanks to my teachers: Linda Pease and Chris Lynch for being such large sources of energy, positivity, love, and determination. I never would have developed such a strong passion and excitement for learning without your presences in my life.
