Sokah2Soca

Couva East Secondary Bursting of Pinatas Spanish Day 2012

School Dayz!
Written by Santiwah from notes sent by Sandiego Lee

I was thinking recently about elementary school and reached to the conclusion that I didn't' enjoy it like I should have. However, before I present some reasons why I think that I should relate  some memories of how the school day started.  I attended a two story E.C. school, and every morning before we went to the classroom everyone had to line up for hygiene inspection. A designated teacher would walk through the lines and inspected how tidy and clean you were dressed (not a good way for a child to start the school day). As the teacher approached you became nervous anticipating the worst.

When I reflect, I can recall that during that period one was asked to extend your hands  for inspection.  Dirty finger nails could result in getting 'wacked' with a ruler on your knuckles... you know that drill. I believe every child who grew up during that period got smacked on their knuckle for one reason or another. After inspection all classes marched to there respective class rooms. Why we even said an Anglican prayer before we settled down for the day and at the end of the school day to this day is something I wonder about... do you know why?  I wonder if that is still practiced today?

The problem I had with elementary school was that most teachers would beat the hell out of the slow learning kids and expected them to learn from a beating because of the teacher's inadequate teaching method. I was really fearful of some teachers for that reason. Looking back I believed kids excelled when they had a teacher that was mellow and loving to their students. The teachers who seemed to enjoy whipping kids always had their favorites who never got a whipping. Then again, there were the suck-ups who would bring a tamarind switch for the teacher.  It was always a pleasure when the suck-ups got whipped with their own whip, sweet justice, ha, ha, ha...

There were times when the school would have a movie day, some selective movie like "Spartacus, King of Kings, or The Sound of Music". The days following the movie at recess we would act out scenes from that movie. For instance, lets say it was Spartacus, a bunch of boys would form two teams: The Romans and Spartacus and his rebels and play out  the war scene in that movie. Of course everyone wanted to be Spartacus.

I remember that there was a play ground above the school and we would take water to the hills and create a muddy slid-y area and slide down with your BATA gym-boots. I remember one day after sliding down that hill that my gym boots fell apart, I went home with toes hanging out.  I am not sure what I wore to school the next day.  After all you only got one BATA Jim-boots for the school year. Oh, how I miss the good ole days! If you have a memory about going to school in Trinidad and Tobago from 'back in the day', please share  it with your peers.

More memories to follow.

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