3 June 1999
Dear Friends,
Well, my first term has officially come to a close. It's been winding down slowly, and there's one last formality, but my work is done for this term. But there are a few things to share, so...
THE FINAL DAYS
As the term was winding up I was running into increasing attitude problems from my Form 6 students, who were only a few weeks away from beginning their exams. Their teachers all were getting about 25% attendance in class; seems most of the students decided it was a better use of their time to study until 4AM with their textbook and then sleep through the class where the person who has a degree in the subject is willing to answer any question.
It's an incredibly frustrating part of the exam culture here. For the last term of Form 6, I have absolutely zero effect on their grade. I have no control over them whatsoever, and they see my presence in class as a hindrance, bothering them when they want to study.
I sincerely believe that they know I know physics -- but I don't think they understand that I have lots to teach them about studying methods, test-taking skills, not to mention lots of resources for them to use to study for the exam. I pushed and pushed and pushed and bent over backwards to make sure these were available to them, I offered evening sessions, lab work, extra notes and problems... "Just leave us alone." would be a polite way of expressing the attitude with which they responded.
So I just let it drop. I let them do their own thing. I told them (more or less), "Fine... It's your funeral!" I ignored the fact that they were using ridiculously poor study methods (that may have worked for O-Level but would not for A). I let loose the ballast of all my emotions of pity as they let their health go to hell (which unquestionably would adversely affect their exam performance). I was so scorned by them that I really had no interest in interrupting them while they wrote their own epitaphs.
After all, they made it quite clear that because I was not Tanzanian that I couldn't possibly understand what they were facing (despite the fact that I had in my possession the previous ten years' worth of national exams, and despite that they were very similar to exams I took in college).
Now, it should be understood that while I have some positive relationships with some individual Form 6 kids, my relationship with them as a class has always been similarly adversarial. After all (even though they don't know it) some of them are three or four years older than I am. By the time they're in their mid- to late 20s, they think they have nothing to learn about school and study techniques. It's really too bad -- the boat had sprung its fatal leak long before I got to it; all I could do was watch it sink.
Fortunately, my Form 5 students are all of a more normal age, and, though I'm ashamed to say this is a good thing, they're more compliant. And since I'll have a total of three terms with them, I'll be able to more readily slip in the idea that there's more to passing the A-Level physics exam than memorizing the notes I write on the board.
EXAMS
The Form 6 National exams started on May 20th; we also started our school-based terminal exams on that date. I wrote up a terminal exam for my Form 5 kids of which I was rather proud, and doing that and grading the papers when they were done was my only responsibility for my class. However, that was not the end of my responsibilities for the school as a whole.
There are 12 subjects in O-Level, and every morning and afternoon for 6-7 days they tested one subject at a time. However, since all teachers teach more than one class, it's impossible to proctor one's own exams. So what happens is this: On the day of, say, the history exams, each teacher except the history teachers is assigned to a different room to supervise that class's history exam.
This uses almost all of the teaching staff, since we have three streams of F1, two of F2 and F3, and one of F4. For testing purposes, we also moved two streams to the school library and shuffled the other students around so that the classrooms would be less crowded (there are about 50-60 students in a classroom that would hold 30-40 in America).
It's also imperative to have a supervisor. They are cheating maniacs, because of the twin cultural sensibilities of (a) helping out your friends, throwing fairness to the winds, and (b) Having no concept that having a good grade when they don't know the material won't help them eventually pass their government exams (which are extremely carefully supervised.)
So before supervising a stream of Form 1 for their exam, I walked up and down the rows, looking for writing on people's hands, arms, desks, the backs of the chair in front of them. I then proceeded to explain, in both languages, exactly what would happen to them if I caught them cheating (they will get a zero). For a 40-student room, this process takes up to a half hour.
To no avail, though -- if a student raises a hand and asks me a question, as soon as I divert my attention to the question, there are a half dozen students checking each others' papers out. Fortunately, I didn't catch anyone in the act of cheating. I caught a few of them with stuff written on their desks before I passed out the exam; I just bawled them out and told them to erase it. They're lucky, too -- I was fully prepared to show no mercy... one way in which I hope not to adapt to the culture is by corrupting my sense of fairness.
SCHOOL CLOSING
At the same time, Form 5 took their exams (including mine) in their major subjects. I managed to grade my exams and to calculate their overall grade before they left. I had the displeasure of marking a few "F"s; but for some it was a moot point because they had failed to proceed on to Form 6 for other reasons.
Last Friday (28th), the day after all the O-Level and Form 5 exams were over, we had the official school closing, a final assembly with minimal fanfare and brou-ha-ha, and they all went down to get buses back home. School was much quieter that night.
GRADUATION
So today, a week later, my Form 6 students have finished up their last national exam (which, based on my assessment for most of them, will be the last exam they ever take in their lives, excepting those who choose to reseat the exam next year.) Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until September to see the results, since the exams are actual written tests and not Scan-Tron.
I referred above to one remaining formality -- that's graduation, which is tomorrow. I'll tell you more about how it went in a later mailing... but everything else is done. I just have to show up dressed nicely and say goodbye.
OH, BY THE WAY, THESE LAST TWO YEARS WERE COMPLETELY POINTLESS
A policy that many private schools (including ours) have is that we'll admit a student to Form 5, even if they haven't passed the required parts of their O-Level national exams. This admission is contingent upon their retaking and passing the O-Level exam as a private candidate (this is quite common).
Normally, if student doesn't get a certain level of grades on the Form Four exam, they're not allowed to even take the Form 6 exam. This year, because of the Form four exam fiasco I mentioned in a previous mailing, the grades for those exams weren't available until after Form 6 exams started.
And true to expectations, we had a small group of students who had not passed the O-Level exam even after three tries. We proceeded to let them continue to sit for the exams (as per gov't instructions). However, all their stressing about the exams will be in vain, because without passing marks for O-Level, their A-Level marks will never be released.
And as a matter of fact, we're waiting until the last minute to tell them. At graduation, we're going to honor them all for finishing two years here, and hand out unsigned certificates... it just that when about 10% of them go to get the certificate signed before they leave, they'll learn the truth and walk away empty handed. Kind of cruel-sounding, I realize, but we explored many options, and this was the most humane one we could think of.
It's for this reason that we imposed a new rule for the next class (who just finished Form 5) that they can't enter Form 6 without a passing O-Level score. They can repeat Form 5 if they wish and if their teachers approve. Though I agreed with this policy, I ended up losing a couple of students from that class that I had liked. Frustrating.
OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
Well, along with the end of the term comes another big change -- I have a housemate! I think I hinted at this a long time ago -- he was originally supposed to arrive in February and teach this term, but there was a problem with his permits and bureaucracy and blah blah blah. Anyway, he finally arrived two days ago.
His name is Mark Cutler, and he's a volunteer with the American Lutheran church (he's not Peace Corps). No, despite being church-affiliated, he's not a dogmatic missionary, he's a math teacher. The only real effect of the church involvement is that they only send volunteers to schools here that are run through the Lutheran Diocese (My school is one). Most of that is for practical and not ideological reasons.
Mark is 32 and spent four years teaching at a private school in Washington DC after undergraduate school in his home state of Minnesota. After he got sick of that, he went for 6 more years of school in Seattle, and now has a PhD in Applied Maths, specifically Computer Systems Engineering applications. He'd like to teach at the University level when he returns. Mark's fiancée, Julie, arrived with him; she'll be teaching English at Maasai Girls' School, which is also in Monduli (about a 15-20 minute walk from our house).
It's certainly difficult to say much after knowing him only for two days, but he seems to be a pretty nice guy, somewhat quiet but not dull, and fairly easygoing about most of what we've done so far. I don't foresee any problems as of right now. I'm sure I'll have more on him and our joint escapades as time goes on.
AND THAT'S THE WAY WE ALL BECAME THE ETHAN BUNCH
Mark's arrival, combined with messages from some of you, helped me realized that I've not yet really run down the cast of characters in the little drama/comedy/tragedy/farce that is my life in Tanzania. I thought I'd at least start out:
LAURA: Laura Wangsness is a volunteer at my school from the American Lutheran Church. As I mentioned, their organization has quite a few volunteers in Tanzania. In fact, the other secondary school in Monduli (Maasai Girls Sec School) which is completely sponsored by the American Lutheran church (the students are all on full scholarship).
Anyway, Laura is also from Minnesota (of all places for a Norwegian Lutheran to be from) and is my age. She's been here for a year longer than I have, having come straight out of college. She's teaching Form 1 and 2 English, which I would mark as a harder job than mine.
She's been a godsend for me as far as having another American to talk to, especially seeking her advice for issues she may have already faced. We're both fairly self-examining people, who are here as much for ourselves as for the Tanzanians. We're also good about doing lots of unnecessary nice things for each other: if one of us is in Arusha late one day, the other will fix dinner; if one of us bakes bread, cookies, or a cake, it's shared; we're always getting things and running errands for each other in Arusha.
BRANDON: Brandon Mauch is the PCV closest to me (about 3-4 hours by bus) in Moshi. He also teaches A-Level physics (though his undergrad and Master's degrees are in Mechanical Engineering) so we're able to share ideas, resources, etc. We've even tossed around the idea of jointly writing a Physics Text/Lesson plan thing to be published (it's already been done by PCVs for O-Level Math).
Brandon and I also have a great friendship. Despite the fact that he is very much a good ol' boy from rural Kansas, we have a lot in common in the way we think about the world. When we get together, we invariably stay up until all hours, knocking back a few drinks and talking about everything under the sun. Between our social and professional visits, it's rare that we go for more than four weeks without seeing each other.
DR. MSINJILI: Dr. Seth Msinjili is the headmaster of Moringe Sokoine, and the most honest, dedicated, open-minded, and non-assuming headmaster I've had knowledge of to date. I've found in talking with my Peace Corps education directors that he's also one of the most respected headmasters in Arusha region and in the whole country.
It may well be his non-teaching background -- he is a doctor of veterinary medicine, having studied for nine years in the former Soviet Union, and returned to Tanzania only to find himself unable to find work in his field. (As an aside, the reason a Tanzanian would study veterinary medicine is not to take care of pets, since very few people have them. Most of them specialize in livestock health, and other more applicable things.)
He was able to get a job as the second master at the Teachers' Training College in Monduli, and when the headmaster position at Moringe opened up about 4 years ago, they selected him. Fortunately for his passions, whenever any of the school's livestock (or any animal in town, for that matter) have trouble, he's there to perform full surgery, biopsies, and autopsies when necessary.
I hope that those few people will suffice for right now; as always, your questions or comments are welcome and I'll try to respond to them as I'm able.
I'M OUTTA HERE
Right now, however, I'm getting all packed up -- you see, Saturday afternoon/evening is graduation... but by Sunday evening, I'm supposed to be in Morogoro (about 12 hours by bus) for Peace Corps In-Service-Training! So immediately after graduation, I need to grab my bags and get to Arusha, where I'll get up before the sun and catch the earliest bus there.
IST is for a week (June 6-12), after which I'm planning on visiting some other volunteers around the country for a while. I have no fixed plans as of now; most of that will largely depend on what others' plans are when I see them in Morogoro. So, as you might guess, I'll be offline for a while. Don't let it stop you from dropping me a line, of course! Nevertheless, it's likely I won't check/write again until late June.
I hope you all are in lovely spirits. For those of you who are still shackled to an educational institution of one kind or another, I hope your semester/quarter has wound up/will wind up nicely. Have a lovely June!
Mwezi uliopita umeshakimbia,
(Last month has already run away,)
Ethan
P.S. Some stats from a recent Peace Corps mailing: