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Tales of Tyre-racing, Makis and M'zungus.
8 octobre 2012

Let the Teacher do the Work

         

headache

       

Recently, I've been taking my kids into the computer room.

For a start, there are 15 computers, 4 of which don't work but which all the kids absolutely want to try anyway, "I'm sure I can make it work, Miss". Of course, they can't, so we all get frustrated.

      

Instruction n°1 : Switch the PC on.

"Miss, what's a PC?"

"A computer."

"Miss, I haven't got a username or password, last year's don't work."

"That's OK, use the ones on the board."

"How do you spell that?"

"Like on the board."

"Capitals or lower-case, miss?"

"Like on the board. Look at the board."

"Miss, it doesn't work."

"Try writing it properly, without any spaces or capitals, and see what happens."

"Ah, ewa."

      

Instruction n°2 : Go onto the Internet.

"Which button, miss?"

"The blue E with Internet Explorer written underneath, fourth icon from the top down."

"This one, miss?" (Said while clicking madly on Adobe PDF, the Recycle Bin and My Documents).

"Miss, it doesn't work."

"Give the computer time. You've asked it to do too many things at once and it'll get there slowly."

"Now what, miss?"

"Go onto Wikipedia. The website address is on the board and on your paper. Look, type this here."

"Here, miss?"

"No, where I showed you. Not there. Here. Try again. What do you mean, it still doesn't work? Let go of the mouse, please." (Teacher types website address in correct place and presses Enter).

"Miss, it's in English."

"What did you expect?"

      

Instruction n°3 : Look the information up and write it in your table in English under note form. Don't write sentences, just take notes.

"Miss, do we have to write sentences?"

"No. Just isolated words."

"Miss, do we have to write sentences?"

"What did I just say?"

"Miss, I've written all the sentences, come and look (and tell me how brilliant I am)."

"I told you just to write notes. Anyway, let's have a look. What language did we say to write in?"

"English."

"So why have you written 'his nationalité is états-unis'?"

"Ahhhhh... Madame..."

"What's the English for 'his nationalité is états-unis'?"

"He is American."

"Right. Now do the same for all your other answers."

        

Instruction n°4 : Turn off the computer and come and sit in the middle of the room.

"Miss, how do we turn the computer off?"

"Miss, I've restarted the computer."

"Miss, should I click on 'Close Session'?"

"No, click on 'Stop Computer'."

They all come to sit in the middle. Half of the computers are still on, either with the session closed or busy restarting. Some have just turned off the screen to pretend the computer is off. Others have left it until the last minute and are now frantically pressing the 'start' button on the central unit. These are particularly slow computers, so they don't respond too well to that sort of treatment.

        

This happened in four classes out of five. In the fifth class, I had four or five m'zungu (white) kids. Their reactions weren't quite the same.

"Miss, how come they've got Windows 7 whereas we've got XP?"

"Miss, can I use Firefox instead? I find it faster."

"Miss, how come there's not the same information on French Wikipedia and English Wikipedia?"

"Miss, there's a mistake on the website. Under the picture, they say this, whereas the text says the opposite."

         

And finally, the phrase I only heard once in five hours of computer room with five different classes :

"Miss, I've finished."

      

headache

           

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