Come to school with me.
I have just completed my year of evening classes in Modern Greek level 1. I thought you might want to come along with me and experience a Cypriot Gymnasium (secondary school). OK I know you spent long enough trying to get out of school and vowed that you would never return never mind all that rubbish about it being 'the best years of your life'. OK put on your sunglasses because you will need them.
The school I attend twice a week is in the village of Emba about 5 minutes drive away. The building is a large two story concrete building. This is the one, you may remember from a previous blog entry, that was struck by lightning one evening while we were in class. The building is painted a stark white and as with most Cypriot schools has several flags hoisted at the front.
The Apostle Andrew Gymnasium, Emba
One of the flags is the EU flag blue with gold stars. Cyprus is a keen EU member as they receive quite a few benefits and are able to use their EU veto freely in any negotiations regarding Turkey's application to join the EU. As you might expect one is the flag of the Cyprus
Republic which is a white background and a yellow/gold outline of a map of Cyprus and two crossed olive branches. These olive branches are supposed to symbolize peace between the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus. Ironic really as this is never likely to happen while the third and most prominently displayed is always the Greek national flag symbolizing a desire for unity with the Greek mainland. Unity with Greece is a complete anathema to the Turkish Cypriot community. (Anathema: nice Greek word there!) The Cypriots appear to be labouring under the misconception that because they speak the same language as the Greek mainland they inevitably should unite with Greece. Perhaps they should have a word with USA, Australian and New Zealand nationals to get that issue sorted out. However lets get into class because I am late as usual.
Peeking up at classroom B9.
I am in classroom B9 on the first floor. There are windows along both sides of the classroom and all the windows and doors are open because of the heat and white net curtains blow in the warm breeze. The walls are all painted white, there is a whiteboard at the front and it is illuminated by white strip lighting without the regulation diffusers that are mandatory in most office environments. The classroom furniture that was once had a wood veneer is now covered in graffiti. White graffiti of course. The students use white printers correction fluid to plaster the chairs and tables. The white graffiti even extends to the glass in the window frames. The chairs and tables have been extensively vandalized and it is difficult to find a chair that is not so
splintered that it does not injure the more tender parts of the anatomy. One week we had new furniture but withing in 2 weeks it had either been removed or customized by the students to match the existing stuff, it was impossible to tell. I don't know if they are feeding the kids around here but each chair and desk appears to have bite marks taken from them.
The lesson itself is like yet another 40 year timewarp. The teacher reads today's lesson and the class repeat it back parrot fashion. Then repeat it again. And again. The teaching technique seems to owe more to the era of
'reading, writing and arithmetic, talk to the tune of a hickory stick' than any modern theory of learning. The chanting is interrupted occasionally by the ring of a mobile phone. No one in Cyprus would ever dream of switching off their cell phone. Even the teachers will immediately break off from whatever they are doing to answer the phone. After 90 minutes of chanting in Greek in this room I am starting to suffer snow blindness and am glad when the session is over. I am sure if these conditions were inside a prison they would be considered a form of psychological torture. My head is buzzing maybe I should drive back home and visit the coffee shop.
Ah! Save haven and warm welcome outside the coffee shop.
