| From a letter 14 Feb 1970 | "My first week of teaching is finished.
My math classes have 4, 14, 30 in them and I have five art classes. I won't have any trouble teaching.
Everything is casual. I wear a shirt, shorts and flip-flops. The teachers move from room to room
instead of the students so we can be late for class without too many worries. A couple times I had to find
an empty room for my class of four (they are repeating 5th form and don't really exist as a class).
They come from their regular class and there weren't any extra rooms, so usually we were in the art room, or use
a room whose class is out on PhyEd. On my busiest day I have 5 math classes to prepare for. Classes are 40 minutes long. |
| | I | 8:45 - 9:25 |
| II | 9:30 - 10:10 |
| III | 10:15 - 10:55 |
| tea break |
| IV | 11:20 - 12:00 |
| V | 12:05 - 12:40 |
| lunch |
| VI | 1:45 - 2:25 |
| VII | 2:30 - 3:10 |
|
| From a letter 21 Feb 1970 | Friday - typical day as from a letter: "I got up at 7:10AM, made a couple eggs and tea. Had my vitamin tablet with oragne juice.
Took a shower (cold water) and walked down to school. 8:45-9:25 taught my group of 4 boys 5th form math.
Free from 9:30-10:10 so I dittoed (meths Banda) off some tests. 10:15-10:55 taught form 1 (5th grade) art.
11-11:15 coffee break and I read my mail (I get 3 letters a day on average - one from Gail, one from Mom and the odd one).
11:20-Noon Form 5 math Noon-12:40 Form 1 art again. 12:40-1:45 lunch in dining hall with boys.
1:45-2:25 Form 4 Math 2:30-3:10 Test for my class of 4. Had coffee (instant) after school in staff room.
Procurred text and exercise books for a new boy. Home, corrected homework, washed part of kitchen wall,
wrote a letter, went to dining hall for supper with boys. After eating the boys have "prep" in homeroom in uniform
doing homework. I went down and helped students individually. Prep ends at 9PM and I went home to correct
homework. A couple boys came up and we had tea with them until it was 'lights out'. When they left the VSAs,
Dave and I made some yaqona and sat around drinking until midnight". |
| 7 Mar 1970 | School's Anniversary so girls from Adi Cakabou (and 2 PCV girls) came on
a bus in the afternoon and spent the time walking around with the boys. [ed. - I never thought about it then, but what do 70
girls use for nature calls in an all boys school]. Big magiti and then the dance in the dining hall for form 5 and 6 boys.
Meanwhile the younger boys are shown 2 movies in the dorms. |
| From a letter 12 Apr 1970 | There is still respect and no serious uprisings. The teacher is
always right - he tells, the student memorizes and bingo "education", no thinking required. At our school we give out
punishment for skipping morning chapel, maintenance, duties, prep, not obeying, goofying off. Can't say that what happens
here is same everywhere else as this is a boarding school for special Fijiian boys. They don't like studying, so most
get bad grades, but apparently this school's results are good compared to others. Boys pass thanks to scaling which says 50%
must pass no matter how low the overall scores are [ed. ran into same system in NZ]. |
| Schedule Term III 1970 | All Math except s=Science |
| | M | T | W | Th | F |
| 1 | 5A | 5A | | | 5B |
| 2 | 5B | 4B | 3B | 5B | 4B |
| 3 | 5B | 4B | 5A | | 3B |
| 4 | 4B | | 4A | 5P | 5A |
| 5 | | 4Bs | 4B | 3B | |
| 6 | 5A | 4Bs | | 5A | 4Bs |
| 7 | | | | 5B | 5B |
|
| Bell Times 1971 |  |
| Bell Times 1972 |  |
| |
| My classes 1971: |
| 3B Math, 3A Science, 4B Math, 4B Science, 5B Math |
| |
| My classes 1972: |
| 4B Math, 4B Science, 5B Math, 5C Math, 6AS Math |
 | |
