Good morning Madam Chisholm!

I have finally started teaching. They have assigned me to teach at the public Junior High level, at a school called Praso Model. There are three classrooms, one for each grade. Otherwise there is an office for the teachers, the head mistresses office and a classroom with a few computers in it. The children eat outside and do physical education outside as well. It’s very simple but it seems to do the trick.

This morning was my third day on the job. I arrived early and found that the children were in rows outside, separated by gender. They started singing a beautiful prayer like song and then went on to sing the Ghanaian national anthem. I went inside after this to review what we would be doing for the following lesson. Curiousity led me back outside a few minutes later and I witnessed the hardest part of this job. A female teacher was there, in front of the entire school, with a list. She was reading the names of certain students and they were coming up to the front of the group. It had started raining but they all continued to stand in their lines. The teacher then began to whip them three times each with a stick. These must have been the naughty kids and they took the whipping with no complaint. It was sad and I chose not to watch the rest of it.

The class went fairly well I imagine. It’s hard to gage if the students really understand me and they are always laughing and saying “Yes, Madame”. When you walk into the room they all stand up and say “Good morning Madame”. I reply with the normal greetings and a “how are you today?” and they all answer in sync. They will not sit down until you tell them. I didn’t realize this at first and they kept standing until the head mistress asked them to sit. I am teaching English Comprehension, so the class consisted of reading a passage and then asking questions and doing group activities. I had them reading different paragraphs out loud and the poor readers were always laughed at. See, the Ghanaians love to laugh, they laugh at absolutely everything. So, it’s hard to keep the class focused. They find it difficult to understand my accent and I think it’s even harder for me to understand theirs. This will come in time. When I am asking the class to be quiet certain children yell at the others to listen to me. Generally they are all quite well behaved. I had a student ask me today if she should go and get the stick. I will never be able to use that stick, so this is my dilemma. I will just have to find another way*.

It is so unorganized at this school. It is really sad to see the state of education here. The teachers have decided that I can teach here or there, whenever. My first class I was just told to go and teach them. “Teach them what? Is there a curriculum, a textbook, something?” I finally got the textbook and took 20 minutes to go through and figure out what I was going to do. I asked where they were at in the books and I was told that they hadn’t even started. The class actually went very well, but there aren’t enough books to go around, they have to share, and the kids aren’t allowed to take the books home. How am I supposed to give homework? The head mistress said she would get more books but somehow I doubt this**.

We have quite a few kids running around our neighbourhood. They are always playing in front of our house and yelling our names for us to come join them. Sadly some of them never go to school. They are either doing physical work or just wandering around. I try and tell them to go but it’s hard to get through. So, I have just made a deal with few of them that they cannot play at the house unless they go to school and that they should come here afterwards and I will go through their work with them. I’m hoping this will work.

*I wrote this some time ago and neglected to post it. I have since resorted to making the students do lines on the chalk board, Bart Simpson style, or threatening to tell the head mistress. Its working okay. Any suggestions would be welcomed with wide arms.
**I stand corrected. The head mistress got me all the required textbooks. My only problem now is that the children don’t all bring them to school. I’m working on this.