Sixth Day Friday March 21

This is our day to see our host school, St. Francis.  It starts with a short walking tour and introductions to faculty including the headmistress Mrs. Elizabeth Sasu.  Then we are escorted to an assembly that we discover has been planned in our honor.  I had no idea that we would be presented with such an elaborate and sensational welcome.  Most of the entire student body is present, all 1300 of them!  Wow!  1300 students.  We are seated in front at a table and the ceremony begins.  We are welcomed with speeches.  Bands.  A chorus.  And incredible dancing.  We are even invited to dance with them.  Of course we don't know how to do African dances so the students get a real kick out of this.  We are terrible but they love it. These kids are soooooo talented.  They are not just performing.  They are performing magnificently.  I am so impressed.  And the school spirit is astounding.  I have never seen anything even close at my school in Indiana.  The students go crazy cheering for each other.  Every school announcement or student performance is met with cheers, clapping, high-fives, jumping, dancing, etc.  I am literally in awe.  I wish we had  this kind of pride, comradery, and school spirit at BHS.

 The most surprising thing is the two rounds of applause I received when being introduced.  When they announced I had been teaching for thirteen years there was a gasp around the assembly and then clapping.  Apparently it is unusual to teach that long, or a woman to teach that long?  Not sure and it was never fully explained.  Then when they announced I was the mother of four sons, loud applause and cheering erupted through the assembly.  I was confused so I asked the gentlemen next to me what had happened.  He said in Ghana they love children and they are impressed with me for having four sons.  Hmmmmm.  First time I have ever been cheered for having kids.  But I went with it.  I stood up and took a bow which brought on more applause.  I felt like a celebrity.  Ha!

The rest of the day is spent meeting people and touring the facility, and learning the school routine, rules, policy, procedure etc.  Then we head off for an early evening at the hotel because tomorrow we are headed out very early for a two day trek across Ghana to visit some important cultural sites.

Some interesting things I learned today about St. Francis and Ghana schools in general:
*Ghanaian secondary schools are 3 year schools.  Nearly all, if not all, are boarding schools which also accept day students.  Most student are boarders.
*Students are extremely well behaved.  You do not see or hear any signs of disrespect or lack of cooperation.  They are all (yes, all) polite, helpful, and cooperative.  The teachers tell us that they do have discipline issues form time to time but in the week we observed the schools I saw no signs of it.  Another thing I wish I could import to the US.  What is their secret?  More on that later.
*The students seem very responsible and mature.  They are all dressed in clean, pressed uniforms.  The campus is neat and tidy.  The students are responsible for hand washing their own clothes and also keeping the campus clean, including landscaping and yard work in addition to their studies.
*While the students are all present and accounted for in their classes, the teachers are not.  Apparently teachers may choose to not attend class and we are told it happens quite often.  It is one of the major problems in their education system, teacher absenteeism.  So we have reverse problems.  In the US student discipline is a major roadblock to learning.  In Ghana we found all of the students in their cramped, crowded, desks in the sweltering hot classrooms dutifully reviewing and studying.........with no teacher present in the room.  Yes, that is right.  The students are expected (and they do it, I saw it multiple times) to be in the classroom even if the teacher is not.
*Most classed are very large, 50-70 kids, so the teaching/learning method is lecture.  There is very little problem solving or hands on learning in the core subjects of math, science, English, and social studies.
*Students choose an academic path much as we do in the US.  They also have core subjects and elective courses almost identical to our own.  They seem to be learning basically the same curriculum.
The Ghanaian education system is run by the Ghana government.  Local school districts do not have a choice in most matters including what teachers work for them or what students attend.  Teachers are assigned or posted to a school by the national government and the school must take the teacher regardless of need, personality, or teaching area.  Likewise, teachers and students are expected to go to whatever school the government assigns them.  For many this means moving to a completely different area of Ghana far away from their hometowns.