When I joined the Peace Corps in 2011, I was told I’d be capacity building existing and future teachers. This was in support of mitigating HIV/AIDS, which had decimated a whole generation. One of the hardest hit demographics were teachers.
With more than 30 years of experience as an educator, from teaching assistant for special needs students to a community college administrator, I had taught, counseled, developed curriculum, trained, evaluated and mentored other educators, I felt prepared. I asked to be placed in a primary school but was told the kids wouldn’t understand me, my Setswana being, let’s say, limited. But the teachers would have and I thought that’s who’d be my focus. Wrong. The reality of what was expected of me was not what I thought.
Driving to my site, Moshupa, and its senior secondary school (high school), the driver, also a teacher, asked if I’d be continuing what my predecessor had done. He’d been very successful at resource acquisition, specifically sports equipment. It was the first clue as to what the school was actually expecting. The second clue was my counterpart, the head of Counseling, who asked me to help her with her Master’s thesis. And clue number three, teachers expressing their resentment at being seen in need of capacity building. So, we came to a compromise. I would teach, not the teachers in how to deliver the Life Skills curriculum, but Life Skills lessons to the students themselves.
In my first class, the teacher stayed throughout and I was nervous, since I hadn’t taught high school, although some of the students were in their 20s, and had never used these particular materials. The lesson came to an end and the students stood and applauded! “OMGodzilla” – the look on my face made them laugh and clap even louder.
One day, a female student came into Counseling to confront her teacher. The student told him she would no longer submit to his administering corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is legal but with conditions. It states that a male teacher couldn’t inflict it on a female student he SUSPECTED to be 10 years old or older. He went ballistic. My counterpart told him the student was within her rights and he could be charged with assault.
The next day I pass by the same teacher’s classroom. I witness him just finish caning a female student and about to cane another. Oh, hell, no! I went in and intervened. Again, he went ballistic, yelling at me to leave. I turned my back on him and started telling the students their rights. He grabbed me by the arm and literally tried to drag me out. Fortunately, two or three male students stopped him and made him let me go.
Livid, he went out and I sent the head boy to get the Headmaster. When the Deputy Headmaster arrived along with a female administrator and a Head of House, we all stepped outside. He asked us to come to his office but I had to go back into the classroom to get my stuff. The students stood and applauded, giving me a standing ovation for trying to protect them and their rights!
In the office, the teacher began ranting about how I’d invaded his classroom, disrespecting him. That was pretty much the entirety of his argument and justification. Of course, my version of events was significantly different. The Head of House said that she understood the American view of corporal punishment, but…. I stopped her. I reminded her that the teacher was knowingly breaking their, Botswana, law. Once again, the teacher tried to explain away his behavior saying that administrating this punishment was how he’d been trained and he had no intention of changing.
It was decided that I should leave the school for a while until the Headmaster could be brought up to speed. During my time away, I continued my secondary activities, including working with the primary school homework club at the local library. One day there, I ran into the teacher. When I left, he followed me, ranting and yelling.
I reported the incident to Peace Corps and they decided it was in my best interest to leave the village until the situation could be resolved. They told me I could charge the teacher with assault, but my counterpart told me the students, as the only witnesses, would be subject to serious harassment. The other teachers would persecute them to deliberately provoke me. Ultimately, the obvious decision was made that I’d be reassigned to another school.
But it turned out to be a marvelous move for me! I got to stay in my lovely village and my time at the Junior Secondary School was the best. My new counterpart admitted that she’d been leery about my coming, having heard the lies the Headmaster had spread. When my time was about to come to an end, there was the annual Prize Giving. Teachers from other schools attended, including the teacher. They watched as I received a Certificate of Appreciation from the school, the local Kgosi (Chief) itemized all that I’d brought and done – over a thousand books, computers for faculty, starting the English Club that read to students at the primary school, co-sponsor of the Junior Achievement Botswana group, finally capacity building teachers, and bringing another Volunteer to teach self-defense.
Fast forward to a special Assembly as I prepare to leave. Gifts, hugs, and a STANDING OVATION!
