Finding
something to do here is quite the challenge. I would like to go help here and
there but I also believe that effort is rewarded so they will have to put in
some work themselves.
It had already been a few weeks since I had started going (I say “had
started going” because I’m writing in July about events that date from the spring,
but I’ll be back in September) regularly to Albion school every Tuesday, and
occasionally on another morning. Although, a frustration was borne from several
occurrences that meant that I didn’t do much, and the kids neither. One week of
teacher training, one day to mark the end-of-trimester exams, another to put in
the numbers into the computer, and another to organise the sports day/week, all
of which meant that the kids were sitting at their tables with nothing other to
do than to wait for time to pass.
On
one occasion, I found myself all morning with the kids who didn’t care about a
white person who wouldn’t beat them – the noise was unbearable, the raucousness,
the kids that were walking around on the table, and the beatings which seemed
to be their only way to resolve disagreements.
Generally, the morning
goes by in a more or less « tepid » hullabaloo. To improve this “mess”,
I asked the hotel ‘carpenters’ to fashion some pencil-holders (1) with leftover pieces of wood so that
the kids have a place to put their pencils when they should be listening to the
teacher (and most of all so that they stop writing on the tables and walls). I
also try to incite them to place their backpacks at the back of the class so
that they don’t constantly go about foraging inside them. It kind of works, but
these are habits that they must adopt on a daily basis in order to benefit from
this improvement.
The teacher leaves the
classroom very often – from a few minutes to a good few tens of minutes – and it’s
better to laugh than to cry about it because the second she leaves the class, a
craze descends on the classroom, as if a tornado had passed. One day I had
quite a scare when one of the kids, who was in a disagreement with another,
wanted to “pencil” him – that is, stab him with his pencil. Not being far from
them, I managed to intervene and deviate his movement, therefore avoiding a
hole in the other boy’s leg. This kind of behaviour is beyond my comprehension
!
Due to all of this, I
felt frustrated at not being able to be of help, and as I had visited the other
schools run by Methodists, I decided to return to see the nursery I had enjoyed
to visit. After the Easter holidays, Albion hadn’t reopened on the Tuesday as
planned so I went there for nothing. I therefore went in the direction of
Wesley Contemporary Nursery though feared on arrival that it was also closed as
I heard no noise and saw no one (2).
In actual fact, everyone was inside for the morning assembly (3). Between the constant noise pollution
of Albion and this calm, my choice was swiftly made for this 2nd day
of help in a school. A good decision because I had now joined the big class… of
5 year-olds (4) with the substitute
teacher with whom I got along well and made them work and progress. Not an easy
feat as some had only started school in September and had never spoken English.
Most don’t receive help at home and are never stimulated. The teacher speaks to
them in Wolof or Mandinka if need be, otherwise she always uses English.
I tried to introduce learning
through play by running right and left to find letters or to show a number,
and, what was probably a first for them, I informed them that they were allowed
to get things wrong and that to try was the most important. A first that is
difficult to implement because they are so used to receiving a beating if they
get something wrong on the 3rd or 4th attempt that they
prefer to abstain. Being a stickler for obtaining the right answer is not only
figurative here, but a reality that is hard to bear.
They learn a lot off by
heart, by chanting dully or repeating (5),
which makes them good ‘reciters’ from the age of four, but many are those that
will be unable to bring a letter of the alphabet out of context or name a
number by seeing it. Anton-E even helped me to create cards for the numbers on
which appear the number, its spelling, and a domino relevant to it. I base
myself on the idea that in Mauritius, they often play dominoes and I told
myself that it may be the case here as well. It doesn’t seem to be the case,
but these cards worked and helped a good few kids who could then associate
different retention methods.
This second school is
only 20 minutes by foot from the Atlantic hotel by sandy roads, though
preventive roadworks undertaken in readiness for the rainy season have created
flooding on a stretch of road (6) and
you need to be careful where you tread. Being back in France, I’ll be avoiding
most of the rainy season and I certainly won’t miss it ! I’ll see again this
little world of Albion and Wesley at the end of September Inch Allah.
No comments:
Post a Comment