School Discipline

I’ve been teaching for a full month now. It’s been an interesting experience becoming a teacher. I teach three 8^th and 9^th grade classes in English Language and English Literature. I’m teaching kids to analyze full books and write their own poems. I never would have pictured myself doing this but I’m really enjoying it. Additionally, as a teacher and volunteer, I’ve inherited all kinds of other projects which keep me busy and entertained. Occasionally, I take a period to teach my classes ‘lifeskills’ which is a program set up to teach the students about health and self esteem and things. Pretty much the period where in American schools the guidance councilor comes in and talks to you about being safe and have a positive attitude about life. I also met the English club the other day that I will be mentoring. There’s a lot of work I can do with them especially since they are trying to tackle such a large variety of activities (drama, poetry, debate, speech). I think they will each have to break off into separate groups. Also, I will try to apply for a library donation from the African Library Project after March, so the students have something to actually read for fun. And, once a week I have to monitor the morning study period. This brings me back to how it feels switching into the role of the high school teacher.

School starts at 7 AM everyday. At 7 AM the students are supposed to be in their classrooms with a book open not talking at all. Like study hall in the library. I’m walking around room to room enforcing this on top of it I’m even telling kids to wear their uniform properly. That really takes me back to St. Mary’s, when I was a student at a catholic high school. I really wouldn’t say anything about their uniforms, but its just that they have their shirts half off neck ties on their heads. We got told to tuck in our shirts at St. Mary’s. Rambo? Really? The sad thing is I see the other teachers walking around doing this rod in hand.

Corporal punishment is widely practiced in Lesotho although policy and law is changing that. This is confusing; no one gets it, hold on. The country is currently considering in parliament, a law making corporal punishment illegal. The law on the books specifies that it is allowed with certain regulations on rod size and other things that are rarely (in my understanding) adhered to. The Ministry of Education (like our DoE) has a policy against corporal punishment right now which apparently has no teeth at all even in the public government schools. Most schools practice it. I think most parents consent of it and want it also. My school does practice but seems open to change. I think my school administrators are really progressive and open to new ideas, which is awesome.

A normal morning of study hall consists of slapping the late comers on the backs of their hands with these sticks. So, a side note, these rods aren’t anything fancy. They are branches of a very elastic and sturdy tree with the small branches just ripped off leaving in place little hard knobs. These things hurt. I usually try to stand there so the kids can skip the punishment. Anyway, the other day they decided to not hit the late kids and instead line them up at the gates all day in the sun where they are supposed to study. I think we can do even better than that but I’m glad they have stopped hitting the kids. There’s a lot more going on with this issue but I think I’ll leave it at that right now

Initiation School

The other weekend I was invited to watch an initiation ceremony in my village. Initiation school is a rite of passage that is quite common in Southern Africa and Lesotho is no exception. We covered it briefly in training and I still do not know much about it because most of the process is a secret. Since the only other thing I had going on that day was laundry in a bucket I happily left that behind.
Boys go to initiation school to become a man. The process is usually started in the winter (June) and ends around December or in my village’s case January. Someone who wants to teach the school approaches the chief for permission and then announces it in the village calling for candidates. Parents ask the boy to school and from what I understand boys must desire to go. Parents pay a fee which is in part used to buy traditional herbs and medicines that will be needed throughout. The parents then send the boy to phase one which takes place not too far from the village, often in the teacher’s house. The boy takes a blanket and a sheep with him.
In this first phase, called Khoaling, the boys spend their days going out in the early morning with the live stock and bringing back firewood for three weeks. This part ends with a feast on the night before they go to the mountain for Maphatong. This is the bulk of the initiation process and is impossible to find out anything about it. I think the night before they go into the mountain is the last chance they have of backing out of the school. Everyone who goes up the mountain comes back a man or not at all. These mountains and what goes on in them are off limits to outsiders. I have heard stories of people hiking and being stopped by boys because they were about to stumble into a initiation school. These are very well guarded secrets.
While they are there they are supposedly learning how to be men. This includes how to make things, how to hunt, how to sing, and I’m sure much more. Some people say that the boys eat the live stock they bring with them but others say that this is eaten by the teachers and the boys can only eat what they catch. They also learn to fight while on the mountain with sticks. Stories of boys being brutally beaten and even dying in these mock fights are not uncommon. Even in my training village there was a funeral while I was there for a boy who died in mock fighting. He had finished initiation school two years before but had returned to help out and somehow died. I am told that the cause of death is usually not revealed and instead explained as “he was eaten by coyotes”. Another negative aspect of the initiation school is that often a single razor is shared to circumcise every boy. This of course is a high risk situation for transmission of HIV. There are efforts being made to encourage candidates to bring their own razors to stop this behavior. At this point you are probably wondering how old these kids are. By law, candidates must be over 18 but that is not enforced very often. Boys as young as 11 go to initiation school.
When the boys come down from the mountain they are recognized as men and there is a ceremony. This is the ceremony I went to watch. As you can see from the picture I posted last time the boys are wearing red blankets, tiaras, sunglasses and are covered with red letsoku. Even the dogs are festively smeared. Each boy sings with his classmates backing him up. The song is sung with deep voices that have an awesome sound. I asked my students what they were singing but they said there was no meaning and that it was just a bunch of words thrown together. The boys wear the red until they agree to wash it off a few days later.
People who have gone through initiation school have some sort of secret sign in which they can recognize each other. Once the boys go through initiation they walk around very proudly and call those who have not little boys. On a side note, I asked my students if they would go and they said no. That it was for uneducated people who would do the more traditional jobs. Also, there is a initiation school for girls but I don’t think it’s nearly as intense. Well That’s what I know. Til next time.