School

My village, Tonri, has both a public école primaire and collège.  The école primaire is, yep, a primary school with grades roughly from first to sixth.  The college just opened this year and so (like Dillard Drive Middle School when I was there) has only the youngest grade, 6ème.  As Benin is a former French colony, their education system is modeled after the French one, with middle/high school grades starting at  6ème and ending with terminale.  Other French holdovers include not-as-good-as-Paris-but-decent baguettes, vache qui rit cheese (laughing cow), and nutella.  Oh and also the national language.  The school starts at 8 am, with a break at 10:30 during which the kids eat bouillie or rice, then continuing until ‘repos’ from 12-3:00.  Kids go home during this time, eat, do chores (if you’re a girl), or hang out (if you’re a boy).  Class then restarts until they ring the bell at 5:00.  Pretty straightforward right?  Here’s some particularities.

1.     Everyone has to wear a uniform.  Uniform = khaki.  All public school kids have to wear uniforms made of khaki material (as in similar to what khaki pants are made out of).  Girls wear skirts and shirts or dresses, and boys wear shorts and shirts.  Khaki adds a certain intimidation factor like when school lets out and suddenly there is a several hundred deep mass of similarly dressed children running in the same direction.  Khaki is serious business – kids who can’t afford to buy it can’t go to school.  Private and religious schools usually have non-khaki uniforms, but uniforms nonetheless.  In Pehunco I see hordes of kids in light blue or purple clothes. 

2.     Every public school student has to shave his/her head.  Yes, boys and girls.  The secret to identification is earrings, which girls always wear.  This works well with babies too.  Another identifying factor, shaving your head is a sign that you’re in school.  I mean you can have some hair, don’t get me wrong, but I have personally witnessed a teacher grabbing a boy’s hair that was apparently too long and yelling ‘il faut te coiffer!’.  Translation – cut your hair.  I’ve heard multiple explanations for this, including that it is done to minimize distractions help differentiate and unify school kids.  It was a little off-putting at first, to see all these kids with buzz cuts, but, well, the girls can pull it off. Even boys who aren’t in school have short hair, so notice that it seems to only be the girls’ hair that poses a distraction. 

3.     The kids are the janitors.  They are responsible for keeping the school clean.  Every so often I see all the little ecole primaire kids outside sweeping, raking, digging, etc the school grounds.  Manual labor is a part of school.  No, they’re not killing them, and I actually think it’s pretty reasonable and smart to give kids the responsibility to maintain their own school.  The collège has time set aside every Friday for the kids to clean the school grounds, sweep the classrooms (still dirt floors we haven’t gotten cement yet), and clean the chalkboards.  Consequence?  You don’t see gum on the desks or much trash in the classroom.  Also, as an added plus this system discounts the need for janitors.  I don’t really know who would clean up after a kid who tossed his cookies in the classroom, but I assume they just deal with that on a case by case basis. 

4.     Singing is encouraged.  This one applies mostly to the ecole primaire, although I sing songs with the older kids during English club (most recently it was head, shoulders, knees, and toes).  Singing is used to help teach French and memorize new words.  Remember, these kids all speak local language whenever they’re not in school, so they’re having to learn the French language while simultaneously being taught math, science, and history in French.  Makes for a rough first few years of school.  They’re ABCs song is to the tune of auld lang syne. 

5.     School is extremely regimented.  Thinking outside the box, imagination, and creativity are not encouraged or really recognized. When the teacher enters the classroom the kids hit the desk in front of them and stand up simultaneously to say ‘Bonjour/bonsoir madame/monsieur’.  To answer a question or when called on you stand up first then give your answer.  There’s a lot of emphasis put on how you answer as well as the content of your actual response.  Phrases have to be formulated a certain way, be in grammatically sound French, and be pronounced correctly.  Needless to say this quells most kids’ interest in voluntarily answering questions.

Ti  We're in chaleur and it is hot.  Sitting still in my house and sweating hot.  Drinking water is as warm as bath water hot.  Multiple showers a day hot.  It's almost mango season, which people say is the saving grace of chaleur.  This is still yet to be determined.  I'm really excited for Casey's wedding and to see everyone soon! Closer and closer, it's almost April!  My apologies for not writing on this for a while, I hope you're all doing well and enjoying spring :)


****I changed the address boxes can be sent to from Natitingou to Parakou - the address should be on the right side of this page.