She knew her time
was up. She gently nodded in my direction – that was the confirmation I needed.
I relaxed on the protective railing watching the girls totally focused on her as
she hurriedly rounded up her lesson.
3 minutes later,
she was out and I was in. The girls rose to their feet in unison,
‘Good morning Mr
Juventus’ they chorused.
A handful of them
were trying to copy up the remnant of the notes. They were neither standing nor
seating down.
I paused for a
couple of seconds. And when they realized I was staring at them, they stood up
and quickly folded their notes.
‘Good morning
class’ I replied. ‘Sit down ladies’.
Few of them
chuckled at my use of the word ladies. I ignored them.
‘Open up to your
Civic Education assignment.’ While they riffled through their desk, I went on.
‘Hope we have
done the second part of our assignment?’
I went round to
take a look at their books.
The class is JSS
3. They will be writing their first external exams somewhere in third term. We
agreed to collectively tackle the Civic Education past questions. They had the past
question exercise books already.
As part of the
plan, they had 120 questions per year to answer. So we decided that each week,
they will solve sixty questions. Also, the problematic questions should be
isolated for collective treatment in the class for the benefit of all. It was a
plan I hatched and sold to them at the beginning of the term.
‘Sir’ I looked at
her expecting a well-timed question.
‘I didn’t do the
assignment’.
I looked at Oluchi
steadily. Couldn’t believe that after six solid days and counting someone would
tell me that she didn’t do the work. They all did the first half last week so
why?
‘How many of you
didn’t do the assignment?’ No one answered.
‘Nneka didn’t do
hers too’ Chinenye pointed out.
I went over to
Nneka’s desk, her blank note was all the evidence I needed. Disappointment was
etched over my face like graffiti on a wall. After my explanations and
motivations, they decided to throw my effort back at me.
I looked at their
faces, trying to sniff out mischief or any other prank they may have concocted
but their innocent faces couldn’t yield any other clue.
They needed to be
punished. Can’t allow them go scot free. ‘Nneka and Oluchi go and kneel down
outside the class’ I barked.
That was the
worst I could do.
This little
lasses of mine can frustrate the living God out of you. No matter how much you
try to anticipate it, you will always get the wind knocked off your sail when their
childish misbehavior outfoxes their reasoning.
We have gone half
way into marking the text when I ordered them back. They would do theirs and
submit it to me as soon as possible.
I reminded them
of the reason why we need to work as a team – get the assignments done, sieve
out the problematic questions and thrash them for everyone’s comprehension.
As I left the
class, Nneka followed me. ‘Mr Juventus’ she called out.
‘Yes mam’ I
paused and waited for her to catchup.
‘I am sorry I did
not do the assignment.’
My face relaxed a
little bit as I looked at her intently. This wouldn’t be the first time a
student came up to me apologizing. They know I have their good intention at
heart. Couple of days ago during the open day, one of them dragged her mum to
my makeshift office to start the open day tour. The reason as proffered by her
mum was simple, I was her special teacher.
‘Get the
assignment done and submit it first thing on Monday.’
‘Thank you sir.’
She dashed away.
They just need to
know that I care.
God bless them
for me…
Yours sincerely
Papa Mmeso
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