All entries for Saturday 26 November 2005

Sam's first taste of school

His first day of school, was not a happy one. He was the tallest in his grade one class. He was even taller than the mistress. He was given a desk in the back raw of the class to prevent other pupils from looking at him. In spite of this, some of the children turned towards him and pulled funny faces. He responded by showing his fists, while some of the pupils giggled and whispered among themselves until the teacher told them to be quiet.

The lesson began. The teacher, holding a long stick, pointed at the words on the blackboard. She spoke each word carefully in turn, and the pupils responded, some of them looking absently through the wide window, others dragging the words out in almost a shouted.

'Not too loud,' said the teacher smiling. The pupils suddenly broke into smaller groups, chatting. One pupil hit another with a ruler. There was a sudden scream from the middle row. The teacher, becoming angry, walked briskly to the spot.
'Stop this nonsense,' she said in a warning tone. 'If you do it again, I'll whip you very hard. All right, I want all of you to repeat after me, quickly!!!…'

The bell rang for the morning break and the pupils rushed out of the classroom, running happily onto the playground.

Sam, knew he was the oldest in the class and he was cautious about playing with the other pupils. His greatest moment of discomfort came during the first morning break. The pupils had given him a nickname; they called him 'giraffe' because of his towering height. In the beginning, he had given some of the pupils knocks on the head, but later, he realized that the more he beat them, the more they teased him. The result was remarkable.

After a few months, the missionary who had sent him there to school because he was from a poor family came to see how far he was doing. He was told that he had progressed far ahead of the rest of the class. The teacher recommended the school to promote him to join the Grade Two class. And so they did.

: 26 Nov 2005 21:02 |  Comments (7) |  Close comments |  Report a problem