Mzumbe Secondary School, 1963
One day about the beginning of November, our headmaster announced that all the seniors had decided to leave their classes and study on their own for the coming School Certificate exams. All day, for several weeks, they studied in the dining hall, out of contact with teachers. I let my students know that I was available, but only one student came to see me.
This was a big letdown for many of us who thought (of course) that we could be a big help in the preparation and that the seniors were probably sacrificing good scores for feelings of the moment. Review of four years of material, and the taking of practice exams, was well under way.
But the students had a particular point of view: most of their teachers were American. Many had not taught seniors before that year. What did these teachers know about British exams taken by African boys? And at least in science, the teaching methods were different from the past. They had previously spent most of each class copying a great deal of material from the blackboard—material to memorize and to use in answering exam questions. In fact, the Cambridge questions did often invite memorized answers. Now the Americans were working, through discussion, for a deeper understanding of the subject, and were not providing the answers to memorize.
Who wouldn’t be tempted to think that he could organize his own study time, free from the class schedule?
We science teachers were needed to help administer the exams. After the exams, the seniors just went home. I don’t remember any graduation ceremony. For me, also, it was time to leave for home. I never heard the results of those exams, but one student did acknowledge to me that I had predicted the exam contents pretty well. .
I would be interested in any comments about this situation from anyone who reads this account, especially if the reader experienced a student strike or taught at Mzumbe.
Comments (1)
Henry Hamburger said
at 8:38 am on Nov 28, 2011
Gus, my guess is that you were doing just fine and I would still advise those students of half a century ago to attend your classes. The Cambridge exam-writers were no dummies and their exams were not just about memorization. It's true that there was a lot of copying off blackboards (possibly partly to deal with textbook shortages?) and I suppose classes did feature a lot of memorization until we arrived. Still, although we too had a strike, it was not about idealistic neophyte American teachers. My students took A-level maths exams, which in the case of applied maths had a fair dose of physics applications. Some of my students got distinctions - despite my unflinching efforts to convey understanding above all else. Okay, how shall we start? (as I used to say) Draw a picture! would come the reply. It was sort of a joke but they know I was serious that if they could draw it, they might see it, and if they could see it they might do it.
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