Mouhamadou Diop shares differences between US and Senegal

Over the past few weeks, AHS welcomed four ILEP scholars to the school to observe and learn from our students and staff. The scholars travelled from three different countries to take advantage of this unique opportunity including Brazil, Bangladesh and Senegal.

One of the scholars, Mouhamadou Diop, from Senegal sits in on Mrs. Brown’s classes. One of the most common questions most students ask is why he chose to do this program as it is a long term project, which takes them away from their home countries and families for an extended period of time.

Diop explained, “One of the reasons why we came here is to notice the differences between the educational systems,” he continued by adding, “So far I have noticed that many things are very different compared to where I come from.”

As for differences between schools, Diop described the differences not only between the structure of our school systems, but also the behavior of students at AHS that is especially different when compared to students in Senegal.

“When we come here we learn a lot about the differences, like the classroom settings. The room, the setting of the room is different to how ours are set up. The behavior of the students here, I don’t know why, maybe part of the community, they are really polite here. They are more well behaved, it’s been very different,” said Diop.

Technology was another aspect that is drastically different compared to Diop’s school in Senegal. While all students at HMS and AHS are provided Chromebooks, students in Senegal do not have computers. Diop explained that some teachers have computers, but they must acquire them on their own if they choose to use them in their lessons. Smartphones, however are common for students to have; therefore, they have access to the internet for research and other activities in the lesson plans.

Diop said, “We don’t have technology, the teacher is supposed to have his own computer for work, but he must buy it for himself… some schools have a room where they give students computers, but in the general they do not have computers. They have smartphones, so what you can do is use the smartphones instead to do research and to use when teaching.”

The amount of technology between AHS and Diop’s school became on of the more prominent differences that he noticed. However, one thing that stuck out was the luxury of free wifi that we enjoy provided by AHS.

Diop said, “We don’t have free wifi like you. Instead, a teacher must bring mobile wifi and use their cellphone to create a hotspot for students to connect to.”

At this point, if AHS did not have free wifi, I’m almost certain that most students would have a breakdown not being able to send Snapchats and check Twitter during class. In Diop’s case, being able to create a hotspot works to be able to allow students to use their phones for educational purposes instead of sending Snaps every few seconds.

Diop also commented on another difference that stood out, which was the smaller class sizes at AHS. Compared to his classes that can have 45 to 75 students, AHS has much smaller classes in comparison. (Especially the journalism class that only has about 10 students).

Diop explained, “We have large size classes, we have 45 to 75 in a classroom. Sometimes you have to split them in groups just to be able to have them do that activities, even if you have technology, 10 computers for 75 students is not enough. It’s not easy. Teachers here can more easily work and listen to them, we can’t, if you take time to question any of them it would take up a larger amount of time.”

Out of all the differences in relation to the structure of the schools and the students themselves, we also asked about differences between how he envisioned America to be and if these predictions were upheld or broken.

Diop said, “I have studied American civilization and read a lot of books on it. Seeing it in person and matching what I’ve read and what I see, people are very kind and welcoming. The only thing I was questioning was crime that I see on tv, but that is the only thing I haven’t seen. But what I have read in books has been true so far.”

While spending time in Northeast Ohio the weather of course became a major difference between both countries. With Ohio’s constantly fluctuating temperatures from turning into an ice block the instant you walk outside to being 60 degrees in February, Diop commented, “We live in a tropical country so it is always warm and tropical. It is a lot of discovery for me, I only really like seeing it [snow] from my window.”

Diop commented that so far he is enjoying his time spent in America and seeing the differences between America and his home country of Senegal. The program continues until April, which gives more time for Diop and the other scholars to learn from the students and staff of AHS.