Week of June 14
Today (Wednesday) has been incredibly busy, but I must add a few more thoughts to my last post. I forgot to write about the most memorable thing that happened on my way back to the village and a couple more things occurred today. Once I got back to Grootfontein I was bumming around the Herero tree where everyone congregates before they head out to the village from their shopping trips. Our school had released the kids to go home for the weekend, so on Monday several of my learners were also trying to hike back to Coblenz. While I was waiting I was talking with the most inquisitive learner in grade 9 (he's also pretty good with the ladies) and after discussing the weekend briefly this 15 or 16 year old boy asked me if I was feeling better. That struck me as remarkable, first that after an out-weekend he even remembered that I had been ill and then that he would think to ask about my condition. I already had targeted this boy as one to push in Physical Science (he will actually raise his hand and tell me he doesn't believe me when I make outlandish claims during class that I don't have equipment to demonstrate) and now I'm even more convinced of his potential as a student and as a person. Today I had another good interaction with a learner. Since I started the reading competition in the library it has been gaining steam, I've had some girls from grade 7 say, "Sir we want to read." Granted that is partly just a lack of linguistic ability to express themselves in a more nuanced manner, but it comes off well in contrast to the rude tone that they often assume. Today, though, during break I was on my way to the office and was passing a boy in grade 10 who helps me in the library a lot. He has been reading quite a bit for the competition but he has been sticking to very small books, more appropriate for a 7 year old than a 16 year old, but writing very good book reports about them. When he had finished the 8 pager he was working on I directed him towards a slightly longer book that he could work on for a couple days, not quite sure how he would handle the more difficult material but wanting to push him to read longer stories. As I passed I asked him how the book was going, expecting to hear that it was nice and that he wasn't finished yet but would be soon. Instead he gave me an impromptu summary of the entire plot of the story and enthusiastically talked about trying to finish the book today during periods when his teachers were absent. School-wide participation in the reading competition is still very weak, but traffic in the library is picking up and one of the main English teachers seems to be coming on board with my desire to get the kids reading more. There is little hope for the older kids, but the grade 7 kids are pretty excited about reading and it seems that they just need a venue to develop their abilities.
I knew this week was going to be extremely busy catching up on the time I missed, I need to finish setting the cluster exam, I'm collecting a ton of homework tomorrow, I need to plan for tomorrow's classes, the reading competition and library always take some hours each week, add in paperwork I need to get back to Peace Corps, books I want to read, TV I want to watch now that I have satellite, and this morning during my free period the secretary came to my classroom and informed me that the computer in the office wasn't working. After a bit of testing during my normal lunch hour I concluded that the problem is the power supply, which is better than a lot of things that could have gone wrong but I can't fix it until I get a new power supply. Just one more thing to keep me going full tilt this week.
(Thursday) If its not one thing its another. During my one free period today I was informed that the principal wants to see my files and CASS (continuous assessment) marks tomorrow. Nothing like a little warning. But thats no big deal, I can handle one more thing. Then I moseyed over to the library after enjoying a PB&J with an apple and an old Newsweek. One of the grade 9 classes hadn't participated in the reading competition at all so their teacher decided to motivate them, meaning I had the normal library crowd plus most of 9C. That left me with about 20 books being returned today, 70 kids destroying my nicely organized shelves leaving several dozen books to be reshelved and around 40 book reports to mark for the competition. I like having a full schedule but when you're already busy its harder to deal with the unexpected situations that are bound to arise. How do I cope? Yesterday I made banana bread which didn't turn out too good, but it doesn't really matter; Saturday morning is going to be laundry day but mostly I'm going to enjoy some coffee and banana bread and just read. Today I found myself daydreaming about going to a quiet coffee shop to relax and read over a hot cup, so I'm going to improvise my own little bistro right here. I snagged a couple new books while I was with the other PCVs so I've got a spy novel from the 70s that I intend to immerse myself in.
And the most interesting thing I learned today? The grade 10 physical science exam is on October 13, Friday the 13th. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I hope to exploit Friday the 13th as a motivator. I might wear a Jason mask while I help them with revisions during September, or I might try to get a hold of one of the movies in the series to watch with the kids after they finish their first week of exams.
(Friday) TGIF. Today brought another new experience. I keep thinking to myself that pretty soon I'll get in a rut when nothing new is happening anymore, but not yet. This afternoon I directly contributed to learners being punished corporally. I've seen it happen before and I know it happens, I've seen the tears, but I've never been so closely involved as I was this morning. No, I didn't actually beat them myself. I will admit that I've felt like beating some kids more than once, so far I have refrained. When I was gone I gave the grade 10 learners 8 pages of old end of the year exams so they can practice solving problems involving forces, work, and power. I figured they should stay busy while I'm gone and even if they don't answer correctly I'll be able to assess where we're at and know what I should focus on when we do revision before the exam. When I collected their books today to mark them over the weekend, 10 kids had done some work, 10 kids gave me their books with no effort at all, and 15 didn't even turn their books in. Needless to say I was pretty frustrated so I made a small scene there in the classroom with their class teacher present. Thats when the situation moved out of my control and into his specialty. Once he realized what had happened he promptly sent a kid to his house to fetch his stick so he could "give them punishment." I decided to leave, there is no way to challenge his authority in the moment but I'd rather not be present when the deed happens. I few minutes later it was obvious some of the kids had gotten it pretty good, some tears and tails between their legs. Since the incident I've sealed off any emotion I might experience because its not a closed deal. They still owe me homework and the other teacher has already told them he would check and deal with those who still don't show any effort. Will there be long term consequences for me? Probably. The kids? Probably. Do I intend to do anything about it? Just maintain the status quo, the school has a general deficit when it comes to discipline so I'm not willing to risk undermining the small portion of discipline that exists. Besides that when I hear this teacher talk about beating the kids he strikes me as being genuinely motivated by a concern for the academic and personal development of the kids. No parent likes to beat their kids but they do it because they love them. At a hostel school, the teacher has to assume some of the role of the parent, how far that goes is up for debate. Corporal punishment is a strange thing though. After kids get beat they look like it hurt, they look ashamed... yet when they misbehave they ask to be beaten as if its the briar patch. Today my punishment of choice for the kids that decided to leave my class was to make them sit on the cold concrete outside the class in full view of everyone, teachers and learners alike. It seemed to work pretty well, but nothing spectacular, one boy ran off so I took him to the principal. On the way he offered to clean my yard because he really didn't want to visit the principal who is also his aunt or grandmother or some relation. I still got some cleaning out of him and who knows what else he'll face when he gets home. I definitely don't feel any remorse about any additional punishment he gets, the rest of his family is well educated and successful, this boy won't pass grade 9 at the rate he's going now.
(Saturday) Today I read for a while, did my laundry, watched Sports Center, played a soccer game, and watched a couple matches in the library with the kids. Except for the USA losing again and being out of the World Cup, this was a good day. I wrote that after Ghana defeated the Czech Republic in a moment of pessimism. If you're not a soccer fan, maybe you think its boring... you should have watched the USA vs. Italy match. A 1-1 draw my not sound too exciting but when you add in three red cards (when the game finished Italy had 10 players and the USA had 9), innumerable free kicks, dangerous offside situations defensively, a disallowed goal for an offside player and a hand ball in the box that should have given the USA a penalty kick. The kids watching with me cheered when Italy scored first so I yelled at them, after that they were on the right side. Despite the drama, our chances of advancing out of the group are slim. Italy has to beat the Czechs and we have to beat Ghana, not impossible but that is the only scenario that works for us. The main thing for me at this point is that either the USA or Ghana advance. At least one African team should make the knockout stages, Ivory Coast deserves to be there but their group is too difficult (Argentina and Holland), Tunisia and Togo have a fighting chance, but Angola is doubtful (Portugal has to beat Mexico and Angola needs to score about 5 goals against Iran). So now the only real downer on the day is that Tiger Woods missed the cut at the US Open. I don't think I can blame this on my living situation, I'm just a big sports fan. When I found out that Tiger missed the cut I was sad, nothing else, just sad.
(Sunday) I only have one thing to say right now, Brazil, despite 1-0 and 2-0 wins so far, is much weaker than everyone was predicting. Maybe its the target on the collective back of the defending champs, but so far I'd put Argentina, Spain, Germany, Holland, maybe even Italy, England, and Ecuador above Brazil. The problem? Brazil will still win their group and likely face the winner of the USA vs. Ghana match.
I knew this week was going to be extremely busy catching up on the time I missed, I need to finish setting the cluster exam, I'm collecting a ton of homework tomorrow, I need to plan for tomorrow's classes, the reading competition and library always take some hours each week, add in paperwork I need to get back to Peace Corps, books I want to read, TV I want to watch now that I have satellite, and this morning during my free period the secretary came to my classroom and informed me that the computer in the office wasn't working. After a bit of testing during my normal lunch hour I concluded that the problem is the power supply, which is better than a lot of things that could have gone wrong but I can't fix it until I get a new power supply. Just one more thing to keep me going full tilt this week.
(Thursday) If its not one thing its another. During my one free period today I was informed that the principal wants to see my files and CASS (continuous assessment) marks tomorrow. Nothing like a little warning. But thats no big deal, I can handle one more thing. Then I moseyed over to the library after enjoying a PB&J with an apple and an old Newsweek. One of the grade 9 classes hadn't participated in the reading competition at all so their teacher decided to motivate them, meaning I had the normal library crowd plus most of 9C. That left me with about 20 books being returned today, 70 kids destroying my nicely organized shelves leaving several dozen books to be reshelved and around 40 book reports to mark for the competition. I like having a full schedule but when you're already busy its harder to deal with the unexpected situations that are bound to arise. How do I cope? Yesterday I made banana bread which didn't turn out too good, but it doesn't really matter; Saturday morning is going to be laundry day but mostly I'm going to enjoy some coffee and banana bread and just read. Today I found myself daydreaming about going to a quiet coffee shop to relax and read over a hot cup, so I'm going to improvise my own little bistro right here. I snagged a couple new books while I was with the other PCVs so I've got a spy novel from the 70s that I intend to immerse myself in.
And the most interesting thing I learned today? The grade 10 physical science exam is on October 13, Friday the 13th. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I hope to exploit Friday the 13th as a motivator. I might wear a Jason mask while I help them with revisions during September, or I might try to get a hold of one of the movies in the series to watch with the kids after they finish their first week of exams.
(Friday) TGIF. Today brought another new experience. I keep thinking to myself that pretty soon I'll get in a rut when nothing new is happening anymore, but not yet. This afternoon I directly contributed to learners being punished corporally. I've seen it happen before and I know it happens, I've seen the tears, but I've never been so closely involved as I was this morning. No, I didn't actually beat them myself. I will admit that I've felt like beating some kids more than once, so far I have refrained. When I was gone I gave the grade 10 learners 8 pages of old end of the year exams so they can practice solving problems involving forces, work, and power. I figured they should stay busy while I'm gone and even if they don't answer correctly I'll be able to assess where we're at and know what I should focus on when we do revision before the exam. When I collected their books today to mark them over the weekend, 10 kids had done some work, 10 kids gave me their books with no effort at all, and 15 didn't even turn their books in. Needless to say I was pretty frustrated so I made a small scene there in the classroom with their class teacher present. Thats when the situation moved out of my control and into his specialty. Once he realized what had happened he promptly sent a kid to his house to fetch his stick so he could "give them punishment." I decided to leave, there is no way to challenge his authority in the moment but I'd rather not be present when the deed happens. I few minutes later it was obvious some of the kids had gotten it pretty good, some tears and tails between their legs. Since the incident I've sealed off any emotion I might experience because its not a closed deal. They still owe me homework and the other teacher has already told them he would check and deal with those who still don't show any effort. Will there be long term consequences for me? Probably. The kids? Probably. Do I intend to do anything about it? Just maintain the status quo, the school has a general deficit when it comes to discipline so I'm not willing to risk undermining the small portion of discipline that exists. Besides that when I hear this teacher talk about beating the kids he strikes me as being genuinely motivated by a concern for the academic and personal development of the kids. No parent likes to beat their kids but they do it because they love them. At a hostel school, the teacher has to assume some of the role of the parent, how far that goes is up for debate. Corporal punishment is a strange thing though. After kids get beat they look like it hurt, they look ashamed... yet when they misbehave they ask to be beaten as if its the briar patch. Today my punishment of choice for the kids that decided to leave my class was to make them sit on the cold concrete outside the class in full view of everyone, teachers and learners alike. It seemed to work pretty well, but nothing spectacular, one boy ran off so I took him to the principal. On the way he offered to clean my yard because he really didn't want to visit the principal who is also his aunt or grandmother or some relation. I still got some cleaning out of him and who knows what else he'll face when he gets home. I definitely don't feel any remorse about any additional punishment he gets, the rest of his family is well educated and successful, this boy won't pass grade 9 at the rate he's going now.
(Saturday) Today I read for a while, did my laundry, watched Sports Center, played a soccer game, and watched a couple matches in the library with the kids. Except for the USA losing again and being out of the World Cup, this was a good day. I wrote that after Ghana defeated the Czech Republic in a moment of pessimism. If you're not a soccer fan, maybe you think its boring... you should have watched the USA vs. Italy match. A 1-1 draw my not sound too exciting but when you add in three red cards (when the game finished Italy had 10 players and the USA had 9), innumerable free kicks, dangerous offside situations defensively, a disallowed goal for an offside player and a hand ball in the box that should have given the USA a penalty kick. The kids watching with me cheered when Italy scored first so I yelled at them, after that they were on the right side. Despite the drama, our chances of advancing out of the group are slim. Italy has to beat the Czechs and we have to beat Ghana, not impossible but that is the only scenario that works for us. The main thing for me at this point is that either the USA or Ghana advance. At least one African team should make the knockout stages, Ivory Coast deserves to be there but their group is too difficult (Argentina and Holland), Tunisia and Togo have a fighting chance, but Angola is doubtful (Portugal has to beat Mexico and Angola needs to score about 5 goals against Iran). So now the only real downer on the day is that Tiger Woods missed the cut at the US Open. I don't think I can blame this on my living situation, I'm just a big sports fan. When I found out that Tiger missed the cut I was sad, nothing else, just sad.
(Sunday) I only have one thing to say right now, Brazil, despite 1-0 and 2-0 wins so far, is much weaker than everyone was predicting. Maybe its the target on the collective back of the defending champs, but so far I'd put Argentina, Spain, Germany, Holland, maybe even Italy, England, and Ecuador above Brazil. The problem? Brazil will still win their group and likely face the winner of the USA vs. Ghana match.
posted by Brock Blackburn at 3:48 PM
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