Things I took for granted (23 September 2008)

I had known that living and teaching in Ghana would involve a lot of adjustments on my part, lots of physical differences to which I would have to grow accustomed. The individual mental adjustments though remain largely unknown to me. Some of the ones to-date are included below.

Schedule of classes:
I am used to how it works at Stuart - sometime during the summer vacation I can come to school, ask in the Guidance Office, and see the schedule for the fall. I have known which classes I will be teaching since before I left for summer vacation. Here it is the fifth day of classes and we do not yet have a final timetable (schedule) for this school year. We were supposed to use last year's timetable yesterday, except that most people did not have it any longer, or are teaching different subjects so did not know when those classes were taught last term. Instead we have been using the provisional timetable which was created before a decision was made to change the electives offered to about one-third of the Form 2 students (sophomores); this decision was made on Friday, day 3 of the school year. Despite my tendency to want to know exactly what is going on at all times (which I am working on unlearning, or at least mitigating), I admire how things seem to just work out. I sat in on the meeting about the elective additions on Friday, as well as the meeting where the affected students were notified. Students were not asked what new elective they desired, I was told that they will just show up to the elective of their choice and that is how we will know which they have selected. So another thing I used to take for granted out the window: class lists before the first day of class.

Class size caps:
I met one of my Government classes today, luckily in the Lecture Theatre. I say luckily because 75 students showed up. Even with a class (or classes) of this size, I am hoping to be able to stick to my goal of not resorting to pure lecture this year. Wish me luck!

Custodians:
At Stuart, we all take our great custodial staff for granted. At Achimota, and most other schools in Ghana, the students are responsible for cleaning their classrooms and their houses (dorms). There does not seem to be a custodial staff at the school. For punishment, the students can be made to do weeding on the campus, which leads to another marked difference: the students here are given things called cutlasses, which to me look like machetes. The cutlasses are used to do weeding around the campus, particularly on the grounds of their houses. When I first learned this, I could not help thinking that at Stuart we punish students who bring weapons to school, here they give students weapons (although they are really tools rather than weapons).

A supportive PTSA:
One highlight of going back to school at Stuart each fall is the PTSA breakfast on the first workday. The second day of in-service meetings here two members of the PTA were invited to remind teachers of their responsibilities toward the children. The teachers here do not have the good relationship that the faculty and PTSA do at home, which I took for granted since I believe both groups strive for a common purpose: the education of the students, and I believe they need to cooperate in order to achieve that goal.

Copy machines for staff use:
One unit in Government deals with rights, particularly ones outlined in the Ghanaian Constitution (1992). I toyed with the idea of purchasing copies for all of my Government students, but at four Ghana cedis (about $4) per copy, that idea was prohibitive. So I need to copy the relevant pages of the Constitution for the students to work with as we discuss their rights. It should total three pieces of paper per student. I asked several teachers where I could make photocopies, and after several false starts (everyone tried to send me to the Staff Co-op Shop, where I would have to pay for copies) I was informed that the school copy machine is in the Headmistress's office. When I went there to ask about getting a master made, I was told that the copy machine is broken and they have to bring in someone to service it. I had already resigned myself to having to pay for the copies for all of my students, but was hoping to be able to at least have the original made by the school.

Reliable (and fast) internet:
The internet at school has been down for the past five days, hence why I have not posted in such a long time. I am assured that it will be up tomorrow. I was hoping to utilize the school computer lab for my emailing, blogging, etc. as a way to interact with my colleagues, but if the intermittent outages continue I will invest in wireless internet at home. I had not realized how much I relied on the internet for communication purposes as well as just to keep up with what is happening in the world. I have not read a U.S. newspaper since I have been here, although I do listen to BBC World on the radio.