AIZENMAN: Herman is worried about his son. He thinks hes not learning to read at the pace he should. I get a sense of why this matters after the homework is done when I sit down with little Herbert to draw pictures with some colored pencils.
WOLF: They say in Ghana chew and pour. You know, you take it in. You chew it. You pour it out. You forget it.
GBETODEME: Yeah. I put you where you belong.
HERMAN AGBAVOR: T-R-A-C-E – what does it mean?
AIZENMAN: Thats hard. That would hurt. But at the training, they talked about young kids brains. Told her that intimidation – it can make kids shut down. For Godiva, this information was life-changing.
INSKEEP: Preschools in Accra use a system of call and response. The trouble is that tests suggest the kids arent actually learning very much. As part of our series How to Raise a Human, NPRs Nurith Aizenman reports from Ghana on an experiment to change that and the unexpected obstacle teachers face.
AIZENMAN: You should lash his son for him?
AIZENMAN: If youre a one-eyed man, you dont play with sand because the sand could get in your eye. And youve only got one. Nurith Aizenman, NPR News.
AIZENMAN: You knocked their head – what? – with your fist? Show me.
GBETODEME: I realized I was harming the children.
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player
AIZENMAN: If necessary, by getting physical – maybe lash them with a stick or…
Preschools In Ghanas Capital Challenge Call-And-Response System
AIZENMAN: And sometimes dads patience wears thin, like when they get to a tracing exercise.
HERMAN AGBAVOR: Youve got to learn how to read. Its very important.
AIZENMAN: Smiling. Oh, look at all his teeth.
GBETODEME: Let me be frank. I knocked students head.
AIZENMAN: Then he brings up this local expression.
Preschools In Ghanas Capital Challenge Call-And-Response System
HERMAN AGBAVOR: If you are a one-eyed man, you dont play with sand.
AIZENMAN: You dont have room for error with him.
NURITH AIZENMAN, BYLINE: Herbert Agbavor has been in preschool since he was 1 year old. Hes 5 now. Every night, his father, Herman, goes over his homework.
GBETODEME: Yes. Godiva, lash him for me. Lash Herbert. Hes not learning.
AIZENMAN: Somehow involving the parents made things worse, and this points to the challenge of being a parent in any country. How do you keep your determination to give your child the best possible start from becoming the very thing that gets in the way? Its hard for parents to give up on demanding immediate results from schools, like Herman who is so desperate to give his son a better life.
And in that moment, faced with this anxious dad, Godiva fell back into her old ways. She says she called out to Herbert.
HERMAN AGBAVOR: Herbert is my first son.
AIZENMAN: This is actually a teaching technique at the core of the experimental training program. When Ghana saw that its kids were failing, it reached out to Sharon Wolf, a professor at University of Pennsylvania who specializes in training preschool teachers in developing countries. She says the idea is to get the teachers to ask kids open-ended questions.
AIZENMAN: This is the polar opposite of the common teaching style in Ghana – the rote memorization method – which is so pervasive here, Sharon Wolf says theyve got a name for it.
AIZENMAN: Shes brought the kids over to this chart thats got faces on it – some smiling, some frowning. Everyone has to put a sticker under the face that matches how theyre feeling. Herbert chooses the smiley face.
GBETODEME: Yes. He told me I should lash his son for him.
Preschools In Ghanas Capital Challenge Call-And-Response System
AIZENMAN: Thats why – right now – hes stuck in a job he doesnt like, working at the airport filling out paperwork when planes come in. He wants Herbert to be able to find his passion.
iframe src= width=100% height=290 frameborder=0 scrolling=no title=NPR embedded audio player
HERBERT AGBAVOR: Yes, I draw him big – smiling.
Preschools In Ghanas Capital Challenge Call-And-Response System
GBETODEME: Herbert, did you hear what your dad said – what your daddy told me to do to you? He said, yes, I heard it.
SHARON WOLF: Really trying to draw out childrens ability to think and reason.
WOLF: All those gains that we saw for children are erased.
AIZENMAN: Like, you need to command respect.
AIZENMAN: Most of the other teachers felt the same way. And when they shifted their focus from intimidating kids into memorizing words and numbers and instead just worked on developing the childrens reasoning skills, the kids actually started to pick up more words and numbers. Could this be the fix for Ghanas preschools? Well, earlier this year, Herman – little Herberts dad – paid Godiva a visit to deliver a message.
AIZENMAN: Herman has stretched the family budget to put his son in preschool all these years because Herman himself did not get that chance.
iframe src= width=100% height=290 frameborder=0 scrolling=no title=NPR embedded audio player
Around the world, people recognize that preschool is important, but whats not as clear is, what makes a good preschool? For example, in Ghanas capital city of Accra, an estimated 80 percent of kids – 80 percent – are enrolled in preschool by age 3. This is what you might hear in one of those schools.
GBETODEME: Then hes like – the moment I said that, then you see that hes kind of timid.
Preschools In Ghanas Capital Challenge Call-And-Response System
GBETODEME: Your mommy will buy you toffee?
AIZENMAN: For the rest of the day, Herbert sort of shrank into himself. It was just a momentary slip in response to a one-time conversation. But its telling because of another less hopeful finding from Sharon Wolfs experiment. A second group of teachers got the same training as Godiva, but then the researchers also brought in the parents and encouraged them to get more involved in their kids education – talk to the teachers more. And heres what Sharon Wolf and her collaborators found. The teachers in that second group who had the parents talking to them more, they stuck to the old way – teacher as authoritarian drill master. And their students…
HERMAN AGBAVOR: What he wants to do…
AIZENMAN: So this past fall, he pulled Herbert out of his old preschool and put him into another preschool, just hoping it might be better. What he didnt know is that Herberts new teacher is part of an experiment to transform Ghanas preschools. Her name is Godiva Gbetodeme (ph). Two years ago, she went through a training program.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline byVerb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record.
HERMAN AGBAVOR: And I had a lot of problem during my education. I realized my foundation was no good.
Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our websiteterms of useandpermissionspages at further information.
AIZENMAN: Now, she no longer spends all day drilling the kids military style. Shes constantly finding ways to engage them in conversation.
AIZENMAN: She says the effect was immediate.
HERMAN AGBAVOR: Oh, we cant do that. We cant do that.
AIZENMAN: Because he paid your school fees for you?
HERBERT AGBAVOR: Because my mother will buy me toffee.
INSKEEP: The teacher is holding up flashcards.
GBETODEME: Why are you happy, happy, happy like that?
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Shoe. All of you say shoe.
HERBERT AGBAVOR: Because he paid my school fees for me.
AIZENMAN: And Godiva the teacher says giving up chew and pour required her to completely re-think her role. Before…
In Accra, many low-income parents scrape together money to send their toddlers to private schools. The trouble: schools subject them to long lectures, and punish misbehavior with beatings.
GBETODEME: Will you be bringing me some of the toffee (laughter)?
In Accra, many low-income parents scrape together money to send their toddlers to private schools. The trouble: schools subject them to long lectures, and punish misbehavior with beatings.
AIZENMAN: Lash him. Hes not learning.