Finding a way into learning
Urvashi Nangia
School Days is an English translation of Chemin-d’ Ecole written by Chamoiseau in 1994, and translated by Coverdale. It’s a brilliant but disturbing, autobiographical narrative, describing the author’s childhood set in Fort-de-France, Martinique. Martinique was earlier a French colony, which was later transformed into an overseas region of France. Martinique’s official language is French, although many of its inhabitants also speak Antillean Creole (Wikipedia).
The book is about a little black boy and his quest with learning. French is the language of instruction in his school and he comes from a Creole background. It’s a very sensitive story highlighting the challenges of inclusion. The boy is constantly experiencing the tension between the Creole and French cultures. It describes the journey of the boy from his pre-school years to his memories of being in a big school. The narrative is divided into two parts – ‘longing’ and ‘survival’. Reading the book feels like reading a play and a story together! The writing style juxtaposes the very essence of the ‘oral’, present in Creole language along with the French language.
In the first part, the author describes the little boy’s high curiosity and his intense desire to know. Everything is a mystery for him and he longs to discover the things that the school and the outside world have to offer. The boy is extremely fascinated with the satchel, chalk, slate and sponge. It’s a delight to read about the different ‘make-believe’ plays of the boy with all these objects and his wonderful discovery of the use of the chalk for scribbling! “Not even for one moment did he have enough chalk, enough sponge, enough slate…having accidently discovered how beautifully the apartment walls lent themselves to the magic of chalk, he soon covered them with it…” (pg. 19). His play slowly leads him to discover that there is a code – there are things, which can be inscribed, deciphered, and read. He makes this crucial link between speech and the written word.
Vgotsky interprets play and art as preparatory to reading and writing. He says that make-believe play, scribbles on paper, gestures in the air are all a part of a unified process of development. When the child participates in such activities, he is already using symbols to express, communicate and make meaning. The little boy starts understanding that a word is made of different symbols. He also guesses that as all the big kids can decipher this, it must be taught in school! His yearning to crack the code, leads him to ‘plague’ his mother to start sending him to school. The mother eventually gives in and takes him to a pre-school.
The boy’s first teacher is Mam Salinie’re who is kind and welcoming. There is complete acceptance by the teacher along with encouragement and praise at every task done. The warmth that he feels during his pre-school turns into a cold frightening experience in the big school. The first day is a nightmare – starting with the hard task of answering to the roll call in loud and clear French, learning that the teacher was like a dictator, bullies waiting for the children at recess and the powerful presence of Monsieur le Directeur. “They were stunned to learn that, captain of his ship by divine right, the Teacher ran absolutely everything. He and he alone gave permission to stand up. To sit down. To open one’s mouth. When he spoke, all eyes and ears were to be trained on him. Pay attention, look alive and sit up straight…. Not even a fly should buzz without permission.” (pg. 41)
The author describes ways in which the colonial French dominated the Creole language, culture and existence, as experienced in the school by the little boy. The language of instruction and all communication at school is French. Furthermore, there is no tolerance for the Creole language and culture. Even though the teacher himself is from a Creole background, Creole is thought of as a language of the doomed. “While teaching the alphabet, the teacher shows an ananas and asks the students to identify the fruit. The children say enthusiastically – “A Zanana, Messie!” In Creole, ananas is pronounced zanana. The teacher’s reaction was absolute horror. Zounds! However do you expect to travel along the path to wisdom with a language like that! This pro’nigger talk gums up your mind with worthless pap!” (pg. 61). The dictatorial way of teaching along with the total disregard for Creole leads to a silenced class… “But everything went well: no one had to speak, to write, to explain this-or-that.” (pg. 47)
The story further highlights how deeply a different home and school language can affect the child’s world. Nobody at his house spoke French and whatever French was spoken was closer to Creole (in terms of sentence structures, intonation, etc.) In the school – the articulation, the rhythm, the intonation changed. The imposition of French language and culture makes the boy feel worthless. The children stop participating in the class due to fear of ridicule by the teacher. “The little boy grew even more mouse-quiet. His inner voice grew ashamed; his natural chattiness deteriorated into an illicit activity to be stifled in the presence of Big Kids and shouted among other small fry to make up for it. Among themselves the children did not speak French”. (pg.65). The boy starts seeing his own language as dirty, used for only hateful things…
The book, very sensitively and beautifully, brings out the tensions that the boy feels, between trying and learning to fit-in, yet staying respectful and connected with his own culture. Highly recommend you to read the book.
Interested in the book?
The book is available for reading on www.arvindguptatoys.com
The author is an M.Phil scholar in the School of Education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She can be reached at urvashinangia@gmail.com.
