THE END OF VACATION January 2010

When I went back to high school each year, I did so with slight trepidation, after all, who doesn’t enjoy their summer break? I never really thought about how the teachers, who would now be fighting for space within the limited capacity of my brain, felt about coming back from summer vacation. Now as a teacher (sort-of) I can honestly say, I have WAY MORE appreciation for summer vacation.. This appreciation probably stems from the realization that when I was in school, homework assignments were optional (PERCIEVED AS OPTIONAL, pardon me) and if I didn’t do them the worst I would get was a look of death and a detention. Here, I have to correct my students papers (all 212 of them) because its my job, and because their young minds rely on my critiques so that they can expand and learn, but really what it boils down to is I have to do (or re-do) the home work assignment 212 times. Sigh. I miss summer break already.
This year I’m tackling 24 periods a week, that means teaching biology to Forms 2,3,4 and English to Form 4. Its not that heavy a load, considering I get to use all of the notes that I wrote last year, and I don’t have to teach on Fridays (because its peer education day), but the homework often is a downer when I want/crave free time. The students this year arrived a little late in order to avoid the inevitable use of their arms as lawn mowers: all students are required to bring machetes to school the first two weeks to cut the grass, which stands over most of their heads! Its amusing to watch most of the punishments for being late, most of which involve some type of physical labor that we would NEVER stand for in the states, like cutting the grass or digging a 6 foot hole to put garbage in. It never ceases to amuse me how African teachers (most of whom are a little lax about attending their own classes) will yell at the students, call them names, threaten to beat them, and then thrust extremely sharp knives into their hands and march them off to do physical labor in the sun – the trust they put in the students not to rebel and take over the school, and the never ending respect the students give them (though at times they don’t deserve that respect) is unbelievable.
Once the grass is cut, the school fees are paid (or negotiated), and the library open (LOOK FOR UPDATE) I’m sure its going to be a busy and fun school year.