Change

My mother can tell you best how much I hate change. She likes to mention how as a child, I ate the same plain turkey sandwich every day for lunch for years. Nothing new. Ever. When I find what I like, I stick with it. More and more though I am seeing that change is necessary, and how often people are reluctant to do it.

I have an beyond rambunctious 6th grade class. Individually I can't think of one student in it that I don't dislike or who hasn't made me smile in the past few weeks, but as a whole, they could annoy even an entire country of deaf people into submission. So, I have been trying to convince my awesome but just as timid as me counterparts to do a new seating chart. Person A talks to Person B, thus Person A will not sit anywhere near Person B. The problem my counterparts are worried about though is that it will actually work; that is, if Person A is not sitting anywhere near Person B, they will indeed stop talking to each other and instead yell across the room to each other. Very valid point, and I wouldn't put it past them, but my thought is Why not try it?

I come across examples like this on a daily basis here. Students who won't do any homework, don't write anything down in class, don't study, and then ask me why they can't understand something. But somehow it is expected that just because I am here, it will suddenly all change, without them having to actually change anything they are doing. An organization or school that has an American to help, but won't adopt any suggestions and continues on the path they were before; but they still expect new results, thinking that suddenly the new foreign person will make something work even though it hasn't in the past. I'm not entirely sure how common this roadblock is for other volunteers, but I see it a little every day. Many of the Georgians I work with are bright people, and I'm realizing that in my situation, I am not here necessarily to enlighten them, but rather try to encourage changes despite all protests against it. I am often faced with some resentment - the kid who now gets marked off for copying when it was ok before, the tests that are harder, the homework that is actually due every day. I'm not a big fan of being the mean crazy American whose yelling no one can understand, but I refuse to just join in on the path that leads to nowhere.

I have heard a saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results each time. I don't know that I would call it insane, because when put into every day life situations, not wanting to change seems highly rational to me, I'll take a class of 30 talking 6th graders over a class of 30 screaming ones.

But if nothing changes, then nothing changes.