There is a concerned Citizen reporter who exposed the suspension of a Standard One pupil at Bondo Kosiemo Primary School, Migori County. The victim is said to be a stubborn noisemaker. Before I joined the University, I volunteered to teach in the school. The Headmaster is a man of understanding, and coincidentally we share the rare surname. The headmaster did not suspend the child, but the child was suspended from his school. Other teachers did not deliver the suspension, but the suspension was authored in their home- staffroom.
The same school has engineered some of the finest engineers in the continent, and produced silent heroes like Dr. Odero Jowi and Dr. Paul Kiage. Jowi is remembered as the first African to achieve the doctorate title on his name. Kiage is the statistician who revolutionized the AU statistics. Even the celebrated limousine Dad traces his nyadhi (sophiscation) from the rural, sisal school.
The little girl who was suspended did not point a threatening finger at the face of another pupil. So she's not violent. She is not accused of packing a book or a pen belonging to a classmate. She's no thief. She is not abusive in her noise. Some pupils are too hot below the belt that they have ventured the bed adventure in the long grasses within our schools. Again, the noisy, disciplined mistress misses here.
Our curriculum has trained us to ignore these noises. We are reluctant to admit that gifted orators like Luther and Lumumba began as noisemakers. The young girl was not trapped in any monologue; she must have influenced a number of her classmates with her speech, denying the delivering teacher the deserved attention. Her story appealed to the boys and girls, than the 3×4 magic on the board. This habit of influence is a repeated success in eyes of a mentor. It is also an evil before the school authority. How do we balance the two?
June is the month of the African child. Deliver this balance. Our curriculum embraces theory, and rejects performance. This is a child who has discovered the art, and planted it on her heart. Her conscience, and not innocence, is unaware of the feelings that her now possessed mind generates. How do you manage such a child? You don't kick them out. If you fail to listen to their noise, you have only transferred the magnified noise to another level. The intolerant space will always condemn their pace and phase of thinking. The same child will be suspended in lower primary in another school, in upper primary, in secondary or even risk expulsion at the college. At that point, you will be excited at the news, forgetting that it began with you. Lead the role.
Just like adults, some children are disturbed with the injustice in our society. They experience mothers burn fathers- even on Fathers' Day, peers die at the hands of the careless drivers on their way from school, watch their bright siblings waste home because the area MP cannot deliver bursary cheques to students from a politically hostile region. Most children will seek refuge in silence, and their development interrupted. A few won't keep quiet. Guide them through easy proverbs, riddles and songs.
Give them the chance to display their feelings in the suggested poems. Let them draw, and paint the friend they lost to the river. Identify writing and art competitions, meant for junior pupils such as the eKitabu and Wildlife Clubs of Kenya. Enroll, and mentor them along these paths. Allow the brave ones address you in assemblies by praying. Don't just ignore their noise. Discover, develop and display (3D) the worth of the noisy child.
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