Calendar update

When PCVs were working with students for the calendar competition they mostly worked with a few students in their class, a school club, etc. Because I went to so many different schools, and got so many entries, it was easy for me to spot work that was copied. When I got three identical versions of the same piece, I started asking questions, and learned that many students here don't see any difference between original art, a copy, or even a tracing. Many of the pieces that were submitted to me were copies of earlier HIV education materials. One young man did an identical piece of "original" work for himself and two of his friends, and one girl actually traced a picture of Cinderella in a coloring book - but she put a soccer ball in her hands. So I rejected anything that I was sure had been copied. The kids just didn't get it. "But Madahm, it is my hand that held the pencil, so it is my work!" "But it is not your vision, and it did not come from inside your brain." Round and round, but I held firm. If it was copied from an earlier poster, or a teaching manual, it was out.

So time went on, we finally got names of the winners and then the actual calendars. You can imagine my consternation when I saw that at least some of the winners submitted the same copied work that I had rejected! January was sort of a copy, but had enough new detail added that it seems OK. Same with April. July is not only flat-out copied, it might have been traced. Same with December. So I have calendars to distribute to the participating schools, and then the visits began. Students saw that someone won with the same work they had copied and I rejected! The head mistress at my winning student's school agreed that it is a problem she deals with over and over. But, she said, "Some times in Ghana when you do the right thing you make somebody angry." I assured her it was the same way in my country, but I still took a lot of flak. From an angry parent, an uncle who had paid for the photograph that accompanied work that was rejected, another parent, a weeping child, etc. A lot of unhappy campers, let me tell you. And I am sort of cranky, also, because some of the work I did turn in was much better than the copies that won...only nobody realized they were copies.

We were already talking about a different approach next year, so that a nine-year old girl isn't competing with a 20-year old guy, and hope to find a better way to handle the categories. And now this. I don't see any way we can memorize every piece of HIV info that's been published in Ghana over the years, but all the teachers agree that we should not accept work that is copied. Maybe just some sneaky interview with each student, along the lines of What a good idea, how did you ever think of that, etc., etc. But I won't be here for the next competition, so somebody else can wrestle with that one.

We had a similar problem with the applications for the GLOW camp last year. Each girl had to submit an essay about her best role model, and some of them were flat copied from somewhere else, like an encyclopedia, a news article, etc. One of the main purposes of the essay was to determine a girl's English skills; we didn't care about spelling or grammar so much as ideas and comprehension. So this year the essays will be written in the presence of a teacher, a PCV, etc. It sorta makes sense, because almost all teaching here is done by rote and in unison. An art teacher told me that when he gave the kids blank paper and said it was free time, they just sat there. "But you didn't tell me what to draw!"