My world map is almost finished, by which I mean I still probably have 20 hours of work to do on it. But most of the countries are painted and, although I still have plenty more painting to do and the labeling of countries, it’s looking pretty good. So on the occasion of my second to last class with the little kids at the library, I decided to focus the class on the map. We reviewed colors and numbers in English inside the library and did a little exercise on how you copy a rabbit from a small grid onto a larger one, by way of illustrating how the map was made. I showed them the pages from which I had drawn the large map before we headed outside to look at it. We identified the map colors, counted the countries in South America and labeled the map by continent. Then I gave each kid a piece of paper and asked them to trace their favorite country. I didn’t expect much: the paper was too thick to use for tracing, the map sits high and so the kids can’t reach many countries. But there then ensued an explosion of curiosity and creativity. Someone asked the name of a country he had traced and then other kids wanted to know the names of their countries. Then, when they couldn’t trace well, they began to draw countries free-hand, asking what they were called and spontaneously writing the names on their drawings. The kids wanted to know where countries they had heard of were, countries like Spain and Hoduras. They asked about islands and Asian countries and African countries with colors they liked. They wondered at how big Russia and China were and how small Nicaragua was. They were drunk on islands: Madagascar, the Malvinas, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Nueva Caledonia. I was shuffling sheets, not able to provide the country names fast enough to keep up with the questions. The kids filled their sheets with countries and names, all of this completely without my urging. We had a hard time closing the activity for the story time which ends each class.
I began the world map, in all honesty, for two reasons—to keep myself occupied and directed through the last 3 months of service, and to leave something concrete behind when I left. Nicaraguan schools may not have much but they do have maps, so it wasn’t as though I was providing the only view of the big world kids would ever have. If I thought there might be some use for the map it was maybe as an instructional aid for a teacher who thought its size and locale might aid motivation.
Now I see it entirely differently. Passers-by can study it for a moment or two. They can say to themselves, “Ah, so that’s where India is.” They can wonder, “Must be cold in Chile.” Or “How big is Africa!” They can look at the United States and Spain and Costa Rica and Panama and think about their family members working in those countries so far from home. People, like my kids, can indulge their natural curiosity about the world. They can imagine better, understand better.
So I am happy today, not just for my project, but because my little class of kids reaffirmed the faith that all teachers have, despite, at times, all evidence to the contrary, that human beings want to know stuff and given a chance they will try to learn it.