By James Rumford
In the country of Chad, it is the first day
of school. The dry dirt road is filling up with children. Big brothers and big
sisters are leading the way.
“Will they give us a notebook? ” Thomas
asks. “Will they give us a pencil? ” “Will I learn to read like you?” “Stop
asking so many questions and keep up,” say the big brothers and big sisters.
Thomas arrives at the schoolyard, but there
are no classrooms. There are no desks. It doesn’t matter. There is a teacher.
“We will build our school,” she says. This is the first lesson.”
Thomas learns to make mud bricks and dry
them in the sun. He learns to build mud wall and mud desks. He gathers grass
and sapling with other children, and they make a roof.
Inside it is cool. It smells of the earth.
It smells of the fields ready for planting. Thomas helps bring in little wooden
stools. Everyone sits down. This is the moment they have been waiting for.
The teacher brings in a blackboard. On it
she writes a letter. “A!” says the teacher. “A!” says Thomas with the other
children. The teacher writes the letter with big strokes in the air. The
students do the same, over and over. “Wonderful,” says the teacher.
She hands out notebooks and pencils. “Page
one.” Says the teacher. Thomas opens his notebooks to the first page and holds
his pencil ready and waiting. “Now write the letter A. Beautiful!” says the
teacher as she looks at the students’ work.
Every day Thomas learns something new.
Every day the teacher cheers him and the other children on. “Excellent job,”
she says. “Perfect, my learning, friends!”
The nine months of the school year fly by.
The last day has come. The students’ minds are fat with knowledge. Their
notebooks are rumpled from learning. Thomas and the other children call out,
“Thank you, Teacher.” She smells and says, “Well done, my hard-working friends!
See you next year.” Thomas and the other children race home.
The school is empty, and just in time. The
big rains have started. The drops come down hard and fast. Strong winds tear at
he grass roof. The rain finds its way inside. The school’s mud walls are soaked
and start to slump. The mud desks, too.
Slowly, the school disappears until there
is almost nothing left. It doesn’t matter. The letters have been learned and the
knowledge taken away by the children.
Come September, school will start over.
Thomas will be a big brother then, leading the children on their first day to
school. They will all stand in front of their smiling teachers, ready to build
their school again.
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