I have this bad foreign-language habit where when someone says something to me that I don't hear or don't understand, instead of asking them to repeat it I'll just nod and smile or respond to what I guess they might have said. As you can probably imagine, this isn't really an effective communication strategy.
Sadly typical conversation with Maria Grazia (granted, she does speak super fast and with a Palermitan accent that i'm still not totally used to yet):
MG: "Why does it smell like burnt plastic in here?"
Me: "Yeah, sorry, I should remember to turn out the lights."
MG: "What? I said why does it smell like burnt plastic?"
Me: "Oh... yeah, that was me, I burnt some plastic."
And, not feeling like going through the trouble of explaining how I keep melting the handles of the same pot every night, I stop there. And then I think, damn, Caitlin, could you appear any more strange?
le sigh.
Today I met one of my teachers at CEI (my fancy-pants Jesuit school) for coffee in the historic center. Antonella teaches the 5th-years, so we're slogging through Napoleon with these guys with the goal of making it to the present day by exams in June. It's a pretty daunting task.
They have no interest at all in history, which I understand, since when you're 17 it's not always clear how things like the English Civil War and the Napoleonic Code are relevant to your life. On top of that, English is a struggle, so that's just one more excuse to tune it all out. Even their teachers struggle with English, don't know how to translate many of the terms, and mispronounce nearly everything. Also understandable: they were trained as history teachers and taught history in Italian until this year, when the school announced that from now on history would be taught in English. They apologize to me every day for how inadequate their English is. And if the teachers feel embarrassed about speaking English in front of me, you can imagine how the students feel.
Anyway, it's a struggle. And all the teachers have told me what a particularly difficult and unmotivated class this year's 5th-year students are. Apparently they've all told Antonella they're not interested in going to college, they don't understand why school is important, they don't care about their grades. It's surprising that the children of the wealthiest people in Palermo could feel this way -- or rather, perhaps, that they could get away with these kinds of attitudes at home.
But according to Antonella, many of the CEI parents don't pay any attention to what their kids do, and hardly even see their sons or daughters. and, Antonella was saying, a lot of the kids don't feel like they have to go to college because they've already got a job waiting for them at their father's company, or with a family friend, and so on. again, it seems baffling to me; college is so important to social prestige in the U.S. that it's hard to imagine that the most well-to-do families would let their kids not go.
Despite their lack of motivation, though, they're mostly very sweet kids. like Antonella said, it's not that they're not smart or capable. What I like about CEI is that despite how stressful and frustrating it often is to teach these kids, the teachers are nowhere near giving up on them. The dynamic of the school really is like a family dynamic. Even though the older kids rebel and push you away, you still care about them deeply and do whatever you can to reach them. Antonella's concerned about teaching them history, sure, but also about what kind of people they'll turn into.
Al cei, i ragazzi vengono molto seguiti, anche ad un livello spirituale, Josephine told me at orientation. The kids are very closely watched after, I guess you could say, even in a personal and spiritual sense. It sounds like one of those BS things you're supposed to say about a Catholic school, but from what I can tell, it's actually true at CEI.
Today I met one of my teachers at CEI (my fancy-pants Jesuit school) for coffee in the historic center. Antonella teaches the 5th-years, so we're slogging through Napoleon with these guys with the goal of making it to the present day by exams in June. It's a pretty daunting task.
They have no interest at all in history, which I understand, since when you're 17 it's not always clear how things like the English Civil War and the Napoleonic Code are relevant to your life. On top of that, English is a struggle, so that's just one more excuse to tune it all out. Even their teachers struggle with English, don't know how to translate many of the terms, and mispronounce nearly everything. Also understandable: they were trained as history teachers and taught history in Italian until this year, when the school announced that from now on history would be taught in English. They apologize to me every day for how inadequate their English is. And if the teachers feel embarrassed about speaking English in front of me, you can imagine how the students feel.
Anyway, it's a struggle. And all the teachers have told me what a particularly difficult and unmotivated class this year's 5th-year students are. Apparently they've all told Antonella they're not interested in going to college, they don't understand why school is important, they don't care about their grades. It's surprising that the children of the wealthiest people in Palermo could feel this way -- or rather, perhaps, that they could get away with these kinds of attitudes at home.
But according to Antonella, many of the CEI parents don't pay any attention to what their kids do, and hardly even see their sons or daughters. and, Antonella was saying, a lot of the kids don't feel like they have to go to college because they've already got a job waiting for them at their father's company, or with a family friend, and so on. again, it seems baffling to me; college is so important to social prestige in the U.S. that it's hard to imagine that the most well-to-do families would let their kids not go.
Despite their lack of motivation, though, they're mostly very sweet kids. like Antonella said, it's not that they're not smart or capable. What I like about CEI is that despite how stressful and frustrating it often is to teach these kids, the teachers are nowhere near giving up on them. The dynamic of the school really is like a family dynamic. Even though the older kids rebel and push you away, you still care about them deeply and do whatever you can to reach them. Antonella's concerned about teaching them history, sure, but also about what kind of people they'll turn into.
Al cei, i ragazzi vengono molto seguiti, anche ad un livello spirituale, Josephine told me at orientation. The kids are very closely watched after, I guess you could say, even in a personal and spiritual sense. It sounds like one of those BS things you're supposed to say about a Catholic school, but from what I can tell, it's actually true at CEI.
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