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Saturday, August 3, 2013

81, 74, 60, 75, 67, 47,  50:   The numbers of children in each grade in the Police Barracks Children's Government School kindergarten through Grade 6 in Kampala.  Yes, there is only one teacher per classroom and no, they have no teaching materials.  This alone defines why so many parents, about half, struggle to pay school fees for their child to attend a private school.

The preschool program is in  one room about 10'x 12' and has no play materials, only wooden benches with half tables and 40 children ages 3-4 years.  Chalkboards, exercise books and pencils are the teachers' only tools. 

Police officers at recruited throughout the country and many come to Kampala for the academy and then work.  Their children come to e school adjacent to the barracks and often stay there through their primary school years.  The nice piece was that they could go home, right next door, during their recess break and check in with their family!

Yet again, I found teachers with an inner strength and passion for their work.  I found them to display positive affect with the children even though the guidance method of humiliation is infrequently used in the classroom as children guess wrong answers.  

I saw another couple  of great examples of teaching "in relationship" with the children.  In one class during their English lesson, the teacher was teaching the concept of "both" and "and".  Theology friends, you'll understand I was expecting a great discussion about the complexity of God's ways, but, no, this was a grammar lesson!

Without a textbook, the teacher used the children's family to make story exercises---she asked them for a sibling's name and what he or she liked to play.  She then created the example:  "Christine is singing.  Davis is singing.  Both Christine and Davis are signing."  The children were so eager to talk about their family and so attentive to the lesson!

In another class, the 7th graders were preparing for their secondary school entrance exams.  The teacher was going over sample exam questions many students had missed.  She introduced the reasons for flying the Ugandan flag at half-mast, a national day of mourning.  She told them Uganda flew the flag at half mast after September 11, 2011.  She then asked me to talk bout what it was like for me to experience the falling of the twin towers.  This was Antonio D'amasio's "emotional thought" in action:  with an emotionally laden story, they learned a new concept.  Beautifully, the teacher later rehearsed the ideas when talking about the need for countries to work in unity and cooperation for peace, not war.  We need to be friends and care when each other faces injustice or horror.  

I had so much fun in her class!  I also learned that the River Nile was named through cultural disconnect--- a frequent occurrence in world history!  Europeans came to Uganda in the first place seeking the source of the River.  Once found,  they asked the native people for the name of the river.  The natives replied, "Ni-le, Ni-le" which means, "I don't know, I don't know" in the Baganda language!  

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