No Class Today Kids

There are some days where I leave class thinking ‘I love this job,’ so much so that I think about potentially doing a 3^rd year. Some days I leave class thinking ‘That was ok, there is always tomorrow.’ These are the days when my French is perhaps not at its best or days when, towards the end, a few students act up forcing me to act the role of parent-I wish I could say disciplinarian.

Then there are the days where all I can think about is leaving class to go home and read a book or watch a movie. These are the days where class is so unruly that I literally spend 30 minutes of my 2 hour session doling out punishments, usually point reductions or sending kids to the discipline office. These are the days that I hate, that make me want to leave. Everyone has them, they are called “bad days.”

I wish I could say that what happened today ranked in the “bad day” category. No, today was even worse. Today was a get-me-the-hell-out-of-here kind of day. Surprisingly, this was not the result of a student, or an unruly class. Yes towards the end of class students begin to get ansy, but hell, I would be to if I had to sit through a two hour math class-half of which you can’t even understand your crazy American teacher because he continues to babble on in French. (On another note, the system here needs a change in the way classes are run. Two hours of math in a row for a class of 100+ students is asking a lot for a group of adolescent teenagers. I can say this safely knowing that most of my Burkinabé colleagues feel the same way.)

About 30 minutes into class, the principal enters the room to make an announcement to students. It is very rare that the principal makes an appearance in class so I thought to myself ‘this must be important.’ With all the exterior events going on it must be so right?

WRONG!!!!!!

Proviseur (principal), “Good morning students.”

Students, “Good morning Monsieur le Proviseur.”

Proviesuer, “There is no class tomorrow or Saturday. (Students erupt into cheering). There is a sport competition tomorrow and the government has asked to use our school for their personal chambers.”

I’m sorry what?

Due to some random soccer tournament, the school will be housing all the competitors and there is not one free room for students to have school. So naturally, let’s just cancel class in a school year already shortened by civil unrest so we can play soccer.

I love soccer as much as the next person, but seriously? It’s as if the second half of this year never existed so why not go ahead and cancel whatever we’ve got left? Students are not even half way done with their course material and we are canceling 2 of the remaining 9 days of school to play host to a soccer tournament. This school week was a lousy 2 days. 2 days!!! Strikes closed school Monday and Tuesday, and now sport closes school for another two days.

That gives me 7 days to finish 5 chapters of my textbook and to give one test so I can actually have something to give a grade for. Semester 2 = 5 weeks of total class, Awesome.

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Continued Later

Even though I did not agree with cancelling school for this, it was a good time. Different sporting events took place throughtout town including soccer, handball, and basketball tournaments. Our highschool won the basketball! By default because there were no other entries. But thats ok, they had a tournament against themselves.