School was always my best subject. Though I was weak in Science, I loved
majority of my classes. Great joy
came from learning. I was one of
those students whose excitement grew when a great deal of homework was given,
especially math. I loved math
homework because of the way I could organize my problems on the paper. I wrote ever so neatly even without
lines. I hardly ever made mistakes
when it came to math.
One of the joys of coming to Kenya is being given the
opportunity to stand before students.
I love introducing myself and I really love the giggles that come the
moment I say, “Hello.” They aren’t
usually ready for the Americanized accent that comes from my mouth.
I have been visiting Living Streams Primary School quite
frequently. It is the school
housed in the same compound as my church.
Each visit marks a different conversation over tea with the school
staff. We are always comparing
American schools to Kenyan schools.
The biggest difference would be the community aspect and methods of DISCIPLINE.
One particular day I was invited to teach a Math
class. Nervously, I walked into
Class 8 (8th grade) and began instructing the class in long
addition, long subtraction and long multiplication. I was doing well.
The students excitedly raised their hands, “Teacher teacher” so that I
would call on them to come to the board and work out the given problems. Then it happened. We got to long multiplication. I was walking them through how to
multiply such a difficult problem.
After working out the entire problem, one of the students slowly raised
her hand, trying her best not to make eye contact with me. “Madam Teacher,” she said. “I’m afraid you have worked the problem
incorrectly.” Oh No! I looked at the board and sure enough I
had forgotten how to multiply. I
had forgotten that you bring down a zero and all of that. I felt like a dummy. I decided to just laugh as I quickly
erased the board. The children
joined me in laughter. Since I
didn’t want to make any future errors, I decided it best to have the children
work out all the problems instead of me.
One by one they came to the board and I BECAME THE STUDENT!
