HomeOld_PostsHow to teach our children to be heirs of Zimbabwe

How to teach our children to be heirs of Zimbabwe

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AT Brigadier-General John Zingoni’s burial at Heroes Acre two weeks ago, Vice- President Joyce Mujuru’s eulogy highlighted the choice of material to teach our children is not a simple matter; that it is what many Zimbabweans gave up their lives for.
“What and how our children should learn was decided on the battlefield of the Chimurenga war of liberation, which war the liberation forces won,” she said.
“The correct education for our children was already paid for by the blood of those who willingly and lovingly died for this country’s freedom and independence.
“It therefore is not up to anyone today to decide to do the opposite because no-one else has paid as much; the sacrifice that was made can never be undone, and the victory of our people is irreversible.
“It is for eternity, it is permanent.”
The time to do the right thing is long overdue.
It is time to rout colonialism out of Zimbabwe’s classrooms.
If we do not raise young people who are imbued with the ideals of a Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans, then we are chasing the wind.
This is why an experience I had over this past Africa Day weekend haunts me.
I offered to assist my nephew in Grade Two with his homework.
The mother handed me some printouts about silkworms.
The assignment was that the child should write about the uses of silk worms.
I asked if the topic had already been taught in class, she said “No, that’s why I always complain that we are now doing the work of the teachers.”
Puzzled, I read through the printouts.
They talked about silk from silkworms, using silkworms to feed pets such as reptiles, frogs, and turtles, their use in genetic engineering, in medicine and as a delicacy in China.
I could not believe what I was reading, seeing my consternation, the mother came to my rescue, “Oh, the printouts, the father downloaded them from the internet, all we got from the teacher is the question topic: The uses of silk worms.
“We have to find the material, simplify it, teach the child, then summarise the information in sentences and have the child copy the sentences!”
I was dumbfounded.
I looked for the child outside where he was playing with his friend.
We spread a mat on the lawn, the children squatted in front of me with their blue balloons dangling from their mouths.
I sat with my legs stretched in front of me.
How do you teach about silkworms?
How do you broach the subject of silkworms?
How do you define silk?
Where can they see silk, has anyone they know ever worn silk, will they ever wear silk?
There was no item of silk I could show them.
The two little boys knew about worms, “some which if they walk on you, you grow things and you don’t feel good”, said my nephew’s friend who is in Grade Four.
I tried to come in with suggestions about worms which can be eaten such as harati, masondya and the children had no clue what I was talking about.
They had never eaten ‘worms’, they said, and they had never seen anyone eat worms.
Meanwhile, two other little boys had joined us, one still at kindergarten, another in Grade Three.
The little boy at kindergarten listened for a few moments on the discussion on silkworms and suddenly made the declaration that you get milk from cows.
He got the attention of the others who also came in with suggestions about things that can be made using ‘skins’ of cows, the Grade Four boy offered, I said “yes, such as what”?
“Chairs,” he said.
“Oh like the ones in the lounge,” I encouraged.
My nephew who had been almost completely quiet up to this time, said “Yes” and went on to suggest that you could make blankets from the ‘skins’ of cows.
I said “yes, and they are very warm, anonzi madahwina,” he nodded attentively taking in the name.
Then the suggestions rained, the ‘skins’ of cattle could be used to make shoes, trousers and other clothing items and seats of cars.
The children seemed more comfortable with English and yet they could not go very far with the language so I could not use it without mixing it with Shona, at the same time they could not go far with their mother language or I would lose them as happened when I tried to explain that ‘madebwe’ the ‘skins’ of cows as they had described them, are first soaked in munyu for a period to soften them.
None of them knew what munyu was so I sent them into the house to bring samples of munyu.
They were amused that munyu was salt.
They held on to the salt until it started liquefying.
The discussion of uses of ‘skins’ of cattle liberated everybody and got them involved so after some time I tried to steer the conversation back to the silkworms. I tried to explain to them that a silkworm produces a thread which is very fine that can stretch for many metres.
They looked at me puzzled what a thread was.
I showed them some knitting wool which was somewhere on the mat, and added that it was very fine.
‘Fine’ did not click in their minds, one of them immediately added that it is like a rope which can stretch as far as China or Japan.
I tried to get him out of the fantasy world, by explaining that it was very very long, but not as far as all that.
The Grade Four friend was clearly fascinated by the length, I then added that it was wound into a ball fortunately there was that ball of knitting wool to illustrate.
So we laboured on, we got even more bogged down when I tried to explain that silk was very fine material.
I hit a brick wall, but when I added that it was also very expensive, the Grade Four friend explained that it means it costs a lot of money, and then diverted to explain how his parents always say they have no money because they have to pay for electricity, food and water and he got the attention of his friends.
By the time I went on to explain that silk is used to make shirts, dresses, ties and so on, I was all by myself, they had no clue what I was talking about and they had disengaged, and I also felt “what was so important about what silk looks like?”
The children would not leave their balloons alone by this time although the Grade Four friend tried to get them to put them aside.
Eventually we got to the silkworms as food for pets.
They knew what pets were and they suggested birds and cats, birds such as parrots. Finally we talked of silk worms being used to make medicine.
“Medicine for what?” the Grade Four friend wanted to know.
I said, “for stomach trouble,” then he went on to talk about when he had stomach trouble and the medicines he got for it, once again the others paid no attention to him, as for me they held on out of politeness, but clearly they were not there.
Clearly the only reason I went through this was because the child had to take some sentences to school, and I did not want him to write something he did not understand.
As a way of summarising, I asked the children what we had just said about the uses of silkworms, but shockingly, no-one remembered.
I tried to prompt them, but they all repeated examples of what the ‘skins’ of animals can be used to make.
I tried to steer the discussion back to the silkworms, but they started asking to go to the loo, to get their hats because it was too hot and so forth.
We complete the discussion next week.
Dr Mahamba is a war veteran and holds a PhD from Havard University. She is currently doing consultancy work.

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