I always thought that going to a boarding school was super romantic. As a child, I secretly wished my parents would ship me off someplace. This was before Harry Potter was released, but I still had the image of an English manor someplace with sharp uniforms: plaid skirts and blazers.
Now, I am getting the opportunity to live the experience, but from the teacher's side, and there are so many things that I had not realized, but should have intuited. As a teacher at a boarding school, you are more than a teacher. The day does not run 8-3, but extends into the evening and weekends.
The life for the girls is very regimented with most of their time assigned to classes and study (c.f. the pictured student reflection, presented with permission). There is next to no free time so that they have no time to get themselves into trouble. While this may be for the best, there is also a dirth of non-academic related activities.
As an American, the lack of fun activities like art and sports (sports happen once a week) is rather appalling, but it seems to be a different cultural understanding of the role and duty of youth. Marina has told me that children who go to day schools have little opportunity for play either and that children in Malawi perform most of the in house chores: cooking cleaning, fetching water, and manning street vendor stations. My students were honestly shocked when they learned that I do my own cooking; it was inconceivable! I try to observe these differences objectively and not jump to conclusions about how things ought to be, but coming from a household where a family trip to the zoo was sufficient reason to miss school, the said objectivity is hard in coming.
The girls do seem genuinely happy for the most part (again, see the pictured reflection paper below).
They were particularly happy when I began a weekly movie night on Saturday nights for the purpose of aiding English acquisition. Every Saturday, we gather in the hall and project a movie that ties into one subject or another, usually history as that is my subject. Last week, we watched The Mummy as Form 1 is studying Egypt.
The girls had just had a Pharoah research project, so were able to share who the real Set I was and that there are no pyramids in Thebes and that there really was a famous Egyptian named Imhotep who designed the first pyramid for Pharoah Djoser and ergo was not alive at the same time as Seti I. Our other viewings have included Planet Earth and The Prince of Egypt. This week we will watch The Young Victoria which will pair with Form 4 history.
As I said, the main point of the movie nights is to help with English acquisition. There is a huge range of English abilities among the girls. Some are near fluent, others speak well, but their writing needs work, and some can only answer stock questions with stock answers. Given the learning conditions at a lot of primary schools this is not surprising.
Walking through the primary school everyday on my way to work really makes me appreciate the little garden of Eden OLSS is.
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