The chapter “Ghana
My last class took place in the week before
the exam week, which started on the 2nd of December in 2013. I had
kicked out some students from my class in this term because of their bad
behavior, refusal of participating in my class, or not passing the 50-Computer
Terminology exam. Although I reduced the passing mark from 45 to 35, 30, or
even 20, those students didn’t study at all, so I gave them regrettably because
they had gave up the exam. If you are not qualified, you wouldn’t get any thing
in life so I thought it’s better for them to have such a bitter experience.
However I invited all my students for my last class in order to show my
gratitude to them for the time that we share and the way that we walked together
in the last 2 years and 2 months at Savelugu School For The Deaf.
At first, I called them by the sound of
their names like teachers doing in hearing schools. Although no student put
hearing aid and I knew that most of them couldn’t recognize it, I wanted to
call my students with my voice at last and it was a kind of an entertainment
for a farewell party. For me, it was the dramatic and special moment, but it
seemed to be just an ordinary moment in everyday life for them. In my
experience, Ghanaian students are always very dry and optimistic when they
leave the school and I’ve never seen student crying unlike Japanese who always
set up a stage and enjoy dramatic stage effects and tears. It’s an interesting
cultural difference. And I talked about importance of right behavior and “Try
& Continue” and explained why Daigo always got angry and scolded them. Although
how much they understood my words, all students looked at me seriously and concentrated
on my talk. I can’t change their life but I can give them my words; all I can
do is to plant seeds for future in their hearts and if they give water and
bring up, it’ll help them in future.
And since it was the review week, I gave as
usual some “information” for the exam, which was in fact the leak of real
questions and answers. At the end of term, I always organize an event for evaluation
of result in the term where students get some prizes like toffee, biscuit,
juice, shirts, clothes, notebook, pen, toys if they marked good results. I
don’t give anything for no reason, but they “get” it by their efforts in exam. And
my exam is very easy if students study the points I mentioned in the revision,
so I always give hints, clues and even answers before an exam and hope that all
students will get the prize. There is more unfairness than fairness in life. I
want them to experience the fairness, so I never allowed them to cheat, lie,
steal and any bad behavior, and I’ve given them the chance to get something with
their efforts. Life isn’t fair but I’m fair to my students.
In the last 2 weeks of my stay in the
school, I’d been very busy to edit the film “Walk Together” and the graduation
video for JHS-3 students. And I needed to make copies of DVDs for students and
teachers and after the exam I called students to distribute the DVDs. Actually
this became the last class in Savelugu School For The Deaf. And on the 12th
of December, 2013, all students had gone home and my duty at the school was
finished, and the campus became empty and quite. I cleaned my house to return
it back to the school and checked things in the computer lab to complete my
duties. I walked around the campus and entered classrooms. And when I was
seeing the ground, sitting down by a school building, I recalled the days I
came to the school 2 years ago. I remembered a scene of a student walking on
the ground at evening and in the next moment I realized that it was the
beginning of the film “Walk Together”. Namely the film had already started 2
years ago on that day. There, I thanked my students, colleagues, and the God of
Ghana for the chapter “Ghana
No comments:
Post a Comment