When I was in class one
after preschool, we used to carry wet clay soil to school for molding pots,
cars, houses and every exciting thing we thought of. This would be done during
our art and craft class. It was fun.
I remember a long time ago
when I was in class six we were supposed to make a music drum with tins and
animal hide. It wasn’t easy but we had fun, lots of fun when we all after one
month displayed our drums, and competed to see whose drum was the best “cooked”
(i.e. the one with the highest pitch). I remember I had to “book” the skin of
the lamb we ate over Easter in that year so that I can use it for the art and
crafts project.
In class seven we were
required to sew pajama suits as our year project in home science. After several
false starts and pricks with a needle on my index finger, I had my first pajama
suit.
In class eight for our national
examination assessment we made tin lamps. I remember us moving all over the neighborhood
trying to get old tins that we may use for our project…it was challenging, but
again it was fun
One of the exams I remember
we did in music involved singing a song while dancing to it, then the teacher
would award marks according to your performance. I was in the school choir and
I can say that’s where I learned about melody, soprano, modulation, keys, tones
etc…things I still I apply whenever I sing.
Then we left primary school
and went to high school. In form one and two I did power mechanics, yes, power
mechanics. I still remember two stroke engine, four stroke and one stroke
engines. I remember types of nuts, pistons, threads….
Some of my friends did music
in high school, others pursued woodwork and others art.
Weekends were days for play.
We would go to villages far off, just to be with other kids and play with them.
We would make wooden cars and push each other in turns. We would go to the
river to swim, we would run, play catch and do all kiddies stuff..
We had light school bags,
very light school bugs, with only a pencil, eraser and one or two books. It was
fun being young.
Not any more. In primary
school, currently there’s no such thing as art and crafts. There is no more
home science, and kids won’t sew up buttons if their life depended on it. We
have children; teenagers who cannot make a simple meal, who cannot wash a house
or feed a baby. Those things are not mandatory lessons in primary school.
The syllabus has been chipped,
with only five examinable subjects, none of which is practical.
My six year old kid leaves
me in house every morning at seven to go to school. His bag is heavier than my
hand bag, which by no means is light. I arrive home at four in the evening to
find that he hasn’t arrived, he’s at school Saturday till two when am in the
house having a quiet weekend. .
I feel bad that my son is being short changed.
That school is robbing him of his childhood. He can’t have enough time to play;
he has tons of homework to do after school. He can’t watch Ben 10 his favorite
cartoon character.
My son can’t enjoy his
childhood, and yes, I fault our education system, I fault our education system,
yes I fault our education system, did I say I fault our education system?
