Into the Breach... A Month From Now

Sunset over the fields.

Written March 20, 2012
Manambaro

    The CEG (collège d’enseignement générale, or middle school) sits on a small but noticeable hill a little ways west of town, at the entrance to the road leading to Tsihary.  I followed Desmond, the twins, and two of their other friends up the sandy road, the morning sun illuminating the mist over the rice paddies behind us.  They wore the powder blue smocks that serve as a school uniform, blending in with the crowd of other kids, while I wore my gray polo shirt.
    Early Monday morning I had a meeting with M. Vivian, the CEG directeur (principal) to discuss a subject we were both very excited about: an extracurricular English Club, to be held regularly on Wednesday afternoons.  I got the idea after talking to Jess about my plans for a CEG Health Club or American Culture Club, taught in Malagasy.  She advised that the students would probably end up asking me to teach them English no matter what kind of group I started.  Then I reflected on how Israel would always make sure to lace his lessons with as many positive health and social messages as possible. 
    And I thought: I can do that.  If I build a structure, so to speak, of engaging English lessons, then I can layer and pad and enhance that skeleton with all kinds of progressive ideas.  I probably won’t be able to stop myself from talking about American culture, any more than I could stop myself talking about Niger when I substitute-taught high school kids in Virginia.
    Since the club will be for all ages at the school, we’ll have to spend some time bringing the younger kids up to speed with greeting, numbers, days of the week, and basics like those.  After that phase, I’ll up the ante to a roughly high school-level English curriculum.  As counterintuitive as it sounds, I fully expect a lot of kids to drop out due to frustration or boredom in the first few weeks.  This winnowing will let the really interested and hardworking ones rise to the top, giving them a challenge which I imagine they’ve been missing in their regular English classes.
    After discussing the specifics with M. Vivian, we stepped outside to the flagpole, where all the students were gathered in lines.  Every morning, in a somewhat militaristic ritual that is almost certainly of Gallic origin, all the students stand at attention and sing the national anthem while the Malagasy flag is raised on high.  It was a moving spectacle, especially since the anthem designates different parts for men and women, creating a rich harmony.  When it was over, M. Vivian greeted the students warmly and began his morning announcements.  I decided I like this ceremony better then the American customs of the no-it’s-totally-secular-we-swear Moment of Silence and the it’s-not-fascist-at-all-what-are-you-talking-about Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the droning of a faceless intercom.
    The directeur introduced me, and I stepped forward to talk about my proposal for a club.  Many of the younger kids’ faces lit up when they saw I spoke Gasy, and seemed to glow even brighter as I kept talking.  It was as if they’d been waiting for years to have a native speaker come teach English, or maybe it was just the prospect of having a vazaha teacher who would surely have new things to teach them.
    So with 500 kids in the school, I’ll have to find some way of getting the number down to the 40 or so that can fit in a classroom.  I’ll probably have the classes be first-come-first-served, with a very strict schedule.  The club will start at 2:30 sharp and I’ll let no one in after we begin.  If there is a crowd of more than 40 kids who’ve all arrived before 2:30, I’ll pick the 40 who look most eager to learn. 
    And I intend to have outside-the-box, interactive lessons that the kids will be eager to tell their friends about, slowly expanding the vocabulary lessons to include things like music, sports, animals, even somewhat academic subjects like geography and religion.  If I can teach these kids that there are other religions in the world besides Madagascar’s trio of Christianity, Islam, and animism, then I will consider that a day well spent.
    The first meeting will be on April 18, since the students are on Easter Break until then.  Plenty of time to prepare lesson plans and a cohesive structure for it all.  I can’t wait!