"I don't understand!"

Back in Boerne, when I heard “I don’t understand” it was a phrase that stirred mild disappointment that my explanation wasn’t yet adequate. Here in Jalingo, “I don’t understand” evokes feelings of excitement, hope and potential. While this may be counter-intuitive, it’s nonetheless true. One of my greatest sources of frustration with my classes has been that they would simply sit silently staring at me after I explained something and denied having any questions. However, they would then perform abysmally, by my standards, and I would be left feeling confused. They said they didn’t have any questions! I questioned my colleagues about this phenomenon thinking that it may be something to do with my accent or that they were scared of me. They assured me the same thing happens in their classes.

Hmmm…I decided that this must change! I began starting each class with the little mantra stating that “Asking questions indicates intelligence, not ignorance.” I then started providing ridiculous amounts of positive reinforcement for asking any question whatsoever. I felt like I did this to an extent in the U.S., but I took it to a whole new level here! I told them over and over again how important it was to ask questions and by golly, now in the 8th week of school they’re starting to do it!

The primary mode of teaching here is teacher lecture and so many of the students are used to sitting in their desks passively absorbing information. It is so exciting for me to see how their eyes have changed from glossy and disengaged to focused and confused! Granted, I ultimately want them to be engaged and glowing with understanding, but everything is a gradual process. Today, I was thrilled to explain how to draw the Bohr-model of a silicon-27 atom about 6 times in as many different ways as one can say the number of protons always equals the number of electrons in an atom! The next step is to help them to more accurately describe their lack of understanding, but for today hearing “I don’t understand” and “no capishe” (thank you Full House!) multiple times from a variety of students was a victory!