Cuba POdcast- Jolie and Sophie

In this episode of the Aceres Humanos travel podcast, Jolie and Sophie explore the differences in attitudes towards school between Cuban and American children. They were surprised to find that the children in Cuba expressed a genuine love for school, while American children often dislike it. The Cuban children find joy in their education despite the run-down conditions of their schools, while American children focus on the negatives despite having access to resources. The hosts suggest that we should all adopt a more positive and grateful mindset like the children in Cuba. Imagine this. You're laying on the beach. You feel the sun beaming down on your skin. Descend in between your toes as you drink a pina colada and reach into your favorite bag of chips. The waves are crawling onto the shore as you listen to your favorite song on repeat. Life is good. It's time to wake up for school. Tons of makeup work, approaching tests, demanding AP classes, always pictures of sand and waves ingrained in our heads. Is it possible to have this good of a life? Aceres Humanos is a bilingual travel podcast written and produced by Spanish Immersion Program students and faculty from the Weber School, an independent Jewish high school in Atlanta, Georgia. We capture sounds and voices while we travel and connect with locals and each other, remembering a country's greatest monument is always its people. In this podcast, we weave what we experienced abroad with who we are at home and who we hope to become. My name is Jolie. And my name is Sophie. And in this episode of Aceres Humanos, we explore the ways in which Cuban children find joy in things that we as Americans take for granted. From our travels in Havana, Cuba, we'll reflect on our conversations with children in Cuba, who beamed with overflowing amounts of optimism and positivity, especially when they got to tell us just how much they loved going to school. In America, children dread the days they are at school. We are miserable, to say the least. We are somehow constantly overwhelmed with projects, tests, and homework. Every day, we are counting down the days until it's finally summer. Why does school have to be this way? During our time in Havana, we visited numerous different schools and communities. We wanted to get a feel for what everyday life was like for children living in Cuba. So we asked them to tell us about it. When we got to the topic of school, we got answers completely different from what we were expecting. Here is a clip of us talking to a little girl named Danica. Now here is a clip from a little boy we talked to, who lives in a very poor neighborhood called Los Positos. We asked them both simply whether they liked school or not. Danica responded, which means, yes, I like it a lot. As she added how much she liked school, it shocked us because if an American child responded to the question, they would not talk about how much they loved school. The second kid said, claro, or clearly. He could not fathom the thought that anyone was able to dislike school. When the immediate yes came out of their mouth as they answered, it really made us think about our attitudes towards school in the United States. We expected them both to tell us how much they disliked school, just like us, but we were surprised when they replied without a second thought, telling us how much they liked it. A bit caught off guard, we continued to ask them about their favorite classes, to which they both had immediate and excited responses. We asked them both what their favorite class was, and they responded, matemáticas, math, and ciencia, science. Personally, when I'm asked my favorite class in school, I try to think of whichever class I'm dreading least at the moment. I asked my cousins, who are closer in age to the Cuban children that we interviewed to make sure Jolie and I weren't the only ones who disliked school. We were not surprised by their answers. Here is a clip of one of Sophie's cousins named Emily. Why don't you like school? It's boring. Now here is a clip of my other cousin named Mason. How old are you? Nine. Do you like school? No. Why don't you like school? There's nothing to do. We weren't surprised about their answers on whether they liked school or not. It's also interesting, because on the spot they were able to explain their reasoning for disliking school, which was very different from what we witnessed in Cuba. In Cuba, the children find tremendous amounts of joy in school and make the most out of situations in which they have very little. The schools in Cuba are extremely run-down institutions with embarrassing necessities, yet the children there find so much to love about it. In our own community, however, we see the exact opposite. We are lucky enough to attend a private school with amazing teachers and an overflow of resources specifically for us, yet we only see the negatives and find things to dislike about our extremely privileged situation. This is a direct parallel to a common theme we saw throughout all of our experiences in Cuba. The people there make so much out of so little, and it is so inspiring to see. We have so much to be grateful for here in the United States, yet we take so many aspects of our lives for granted. Maybe we should all try to be more like the children in Cuba, who wake up every day and view things with a glass-half-full mentality. This episode of Haceros Humanos was written, produced, and recorded by Sophie Leepy and Julie Kessler. It features audio arrangements from Grammy-nominated pianist and composer John Burke. It also features original music from Eddie Kamei, a band in a local Havana restaurant, and Beth Shalom Synagogue. Thank you for listening, and we hope you learned not to take things for granted. Please support by sharing this podcast with friends and family. Adios!