Smiles, Worksheets, and a Love for Learning

Imagine a world where children find school breaks unreasonable and the lack of assigned homework to be, well…to put it simply…unfair.

You may laugh and think that sounds like a joke. That surely these children come from a strange land. What child begs to do school over Christmas break? Or what children will come to their teacher and complain because they noticed that their fellow classmates were being allowed to work on paper after school and they were not?

Yes. This is strange indeed. Unheard of even. This was a foreign concept, even to me…until just about a week ago. You see, these things that I am speaking of actually happened here with our older children at Hope 4 Liberia. Janelle, our head teacher shared that the children were begging and actually upset that they had to take a small break over the Christmas festivities. And homework? Well, they don’t have any. But some of the boys were wanting to work ahead one evening and they were encouraged to get their work sheets if they so desired. Well, upon seeing this, our oldest girl, Hannah, became slightly annoyed that she was not given the same privilege of doing homework before bed. You can’t imagine the smile on her face as she went to retrieve her papers from the school house and promptly took them to her room to do her work as well.

This is what happens when education is done right. When it is viewed as a blessing, not a burden. When children are taught to enjoy learning and given the opportunity to grow in a way that is natural to them…not merely confined to sitting at their desk 8 hrs a day and watching a teacher lecture from the front of the classroom.

Jim and Janelle have created an environment where learning goes way beyond the books. It’s energetic, fun, creative, hands-on and full of opportunities to explore. Because of this, our children are blossoming right before our eyes and literally run with huge smiles to the schoolhouse every morning yelling, “It’s school time! It’s school time!”

We are so thankful to the Hendren’s and all of our teachers for their daily efforts in giving these children a strong foundation for their futures through their education!