Two weeks ago, my blog mainly
concentrated on my moments of contemplation as I taught the preschoolers at the
Golang crèche and the grade-two students at the School. However, on Wednesday 20th,
I concluded that there lied a possibility in some of my contemplation-related questions
being answered. And the answered were positive.
The Grade
two students seemed calmer than usual when we begun our lesson for the day on
math numeracy. It was therefore easier to get their attention. However, their
calm nature did intrigue me quite a great deal. My team mates were surprised too
but none dared not to say a word lest things turned around.
As usual, we
split up into groups and handed out the math work sheets. We watched as the
pupils leaned over to see each other’s work sheets and complain on the fact
that their work sheets were different from one another. They did not recognize
or even think for a minute that we had differed the math problems on each paper
deliberately. A few weeks ago, we noticed that the pupils would copy from each
other and lie of the fact that they had authentically solved each questions.
Hence after studying this child psychology and in a bid to prevent copying, we
had outsmarted them and varied the questions on each paper. They were forced to
work individually.
My group
of students had two extremely smart children that answered the fifteen two
digit additional questions in 20 minutes. I must mention that they were both
female. It was my first impulse before I decided to be gender-sensitive. I did
not guide or even instruct the two on a one- on-one basis but they were able to
finish the math questions on time.
I then
reminisced on my last week contemplation on the matter of the foundation of
education the children at the community school received and came to a
conclusion that maybe, it was not as bad as I made it appear. After the lesson,
I took the two girls aside and questioned them on their prospects and
aspirations of the future and how they viewed education. These two eight year
old girls said, and I quote, “ Math is simply adding 1 on 1. In future I want
to be a doctor” said one and “I want to be a nurse,” said the other. At that
instance, my heart leaped for joy. Not because of their aspirations nor because
they got the math questions right but rather because I could see that these two
girls had been exposed to the opportunities that may lie available for them in
future.
I cannot
also forget to mention Johannes. He too was very keen on his work. He
progressed very carefully and always revised every question he did before
moving on to the next. The first time we, the Golang Creche team, asked him
what he is interested in, education was the least of his worries. He wanted to
be a stealer as he thought that this so called ‘profession’ was classic and
showed how much power one has. Looking at
him do his work so diligently, I
doubted the thought process that led him to conclude that he would be best
suited to steal from people. I however remembered never to judge a book by its
cover maybe in this case by its Math skills!Time ran out before he could finish
the last to questions and I saw the anger in him when I had to take the paper
away from him. “I have not finished!” he insisted. A great sign that he cared about
the work he was doing, and a sure indication that education was not the least
of his concerns anymore. I did not interpret his eagerness to finish the
questions in any other way.
These two
incidents pointed out to me that the future is not really pitch black or ebony.
Maybe just grey and cloudy. But in the same way that every cloud has a silver
lining, I believed that every grade two student had hope in them. How this
potential is harnessed and used will determine how shiny their silver lustre
will be.
With the preschoolers whom we conducted a fun
activity of coloring the sun, I was struck by the creative color designs that
originated from them. They colored the rays of the sun as yellow, coated them
with a bit of orange and did not forget to have a blue background. I saw
artists among them; children whose right hemisphere of their brain was quite
talented.
But most importantly, I questioned the perspective in which these children viewed the world in a way that the sun can emit blue, red, orange and yellow rays. I chose to think of these colors as the different interests each child had and the opportunities that could arise from these interests.
At this point where we as the Golang Creche are left with barely a month to impact the lives of these children, we can only aspire that the lesson plans we have put in place will be enough to not only tap the potential that lies within both the preschoolers and Grade ones but also to make them steer into the future knowing of their interests, abilities and opportunities that lie for them to having nothing close to a bleak future.
By: Teacher Wambui Mburu
