A high school student came to the classroom with the following announcements:
1) Tomorrow is PE
2) Wear your PE clothes - (a t-shirt and sports pants or shorts - no jeans)
3) Wear sneakers
4) Bring an extra T-shirt to change into after PE
5) If you don't wear you PE clothes, you'll have to sit and watch.
A little later in the day, one of the teachers said to me: "Wear some sports clothes. We'll be dividing the school into groups. You'll be supervising the high school boys."
(I'll wear my PE clothes and watch the boys and speak a little English (backboard, dribble, foul, shoot, etc.) but I'm certainly not going to"teach" PE, especially to high school boys.)
The following day, the students arrived in PE attire: t-shirts printed with English slogans they didn't understand, denim short-shorts, unlaced sneakers about 4 sizes too big (a shared family pair??), flip-flops, and hoodies (remember, it's 7 degrees above the Equator here which means very hot and humid all the time - why would anyone possibly need to be any warmer?).
We lined up by class and gender in the parking lot in front of the Chinese restaurant below the school and walked single-file along a very busy one-lane road with cars whizzing by in both directions. Several students walked veeeery slowing noticing the frogs and lizards in the ditch along the roadside. Other students eagerly marched ahead quickly planting themselves in the limited shade from banana palm trees dotting the perimeter of field awaiting further instruction.
(While bringing up the rear of the line and nudging the reluctant athletes ahead, I consumed over half of my liter of water. It was going to be a long, hot two hours.)
The athletic field consisted of a half-circle shaped garden about 50 yards across and 15 yards wide with a few lovely trees and shrubs dotting the field.. An experienced teacher, retired from public school and helping out part-time here, led the lineup and instructions with her whistle and switch, a long, thin bamboo stick used to slap misbehaving students in the classroom and herd unruly athletes (mostly boys) on the field.
(I was thinking about cattle, Twitter feeds "teacher herds students with switch", Bible verses "spare the rod/spoil the child", and lawsuits.)
My assigned group of students, the lines Under 18 and Under 15 boys, so classified because of the track meet they will compete in next July, were instructed to take two laps around the field. Off they took and I decided to jog along behind them. After seeing one particularly sporty looking fellow slip on a curve in the wet grass, I noticed he was in his bare feet. A quick survey of the joggers showed about one third of the boys were running without shoes.
At an inconspicuous time, I quietly asked the principal if they were supposed to be participating without shoes.
(It seemed a valid question since yesterday we'd been told they needed shoes.)
He smiled and said, "Oh, they have shoes dedicated to basketball and they'll put them on when they get to the basketball court."
(Ok, this made sense.For a country that prides itself in flip flops or bare feet, saving shoes for something special seems logical. I get it. But, I was also aware the kids are kids and forgetting shoes is common...)
Then, he pointed one of the barefoot boys and said, "He's a great leader and he'll be able to lead the boys in a warm-up."
(Great! That saved from trying to be a PE teacher, especially since I had neither a whistle or a switch (Thank goodness on the latter).)
We walked to the back of the school and onto the basketball court where we proceeded to warm up. Barefoot Boy never did "find" or "put on" his shoes but he did, eventually, make it to the front of the group to lead a "warm-up."
(I was getting the sense that he's a leader in the more "negative" sense e.g. class clown, antics for laughs, etc. )
The first thing he did was place in hands in a prayer position with his fingertips touching his chin (kind of yoga or Zen-like) as he began the relaxing head stretches to the left, right, front and back, several wrist stretches and a couple of arm shakes. When he sat down on the concrete in the butterfly position, his classmates burst into laughter. He continued the "relaxing" stretch with his right hand and elbow pressing his knees to the ground and his just-a-tiny-bit self-conscious left hand pulling his t-shirt down between his legs.
(Seemed like enough of a warm-up to me so I was glad when he said it was time to play. Who needs sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, etc, when you can limber up your wrists for all the writing you'll do later in the day...)
One of the older boys divided the group into three teams of five for short games of basketball. Barefoot Boy remained barefoot and and was positioned on the court to play guard for team #1.
( I love the fact that natural consequences still play a major role in life here. And the absence of laws (or lack of enforcement thereof- not exactly sure which) made me fairly confident that if Barefoot Boy played basketball and got hurt, he or his parents wouldn't sue me. Play on!! )
Sure enough, several minutes into the second game, barefoot boy's toes were crushed under the foot of a much taller and heavier boy wearing some nice, large Nike basketball shoes. Barefoot Boy yelped and hobbled off the court to the nearest bathroom stall, a ceramic hole in the ground with water splashed all over the floor from the hose that is used in place of toilet paper and washed down his sore foot. Several minutes later he hobbled back on to the court to resume his play.
(Barefoot Boy is actually quite athletic, shoes or no shoes, and that's probably why it was a good idea that he played. His leadership and skill on the court was rivaled by none and it would have been a very long morning had he not been there to "get the ball rollling.")
Bottom line...having PE in Malaysia is difficult -there are very few indoor facilities and by 9:00 am it's extremely hot outside. To top that off, we get to study together in a small room with only a dry t-shirt (notice I didn't say clean) to change into for the rest of the day...Going barefoot seems like a minor inconvenience.
1) Tomorrow is PE
2) Wear your PE clothes - (a t-shirt and sports pants or shorts - no jeans)
3) Wear sneakers
4) Bring an extra T-shirt to change into after PE
5) If you don't wear you PE clothes, you'll have to sit and watch.
A little later in the day, one of the teachers said to me: "Wear some sports clothes. We'll be dividing the school into groups. You'll be supervising the high school boys."
(I'll wear my PE clothes and watch the boys and speak a little English (backboard, dribble, foul, shoot, etc.) but I'm certainly not going to"teach" PE, especially to high school boys.)
The following day, the students arrived in PE attire: t-shirts printed with English slogans they didn't understand, denim short-shorts, unlaced sneakers about 4 sizes too big (a shared family pair??), flip-flops, and hoodies (remember, it's 7 degrees above the Equator here which means very hot and humid all the time - why would anyone possibly need to be any warmer?).
We lined up by class and gender in the parking lot in front of the Chinese restaurant below the school and walked single-file along a very busy one-lane road with cars whizzing by in both directions. Several students walked veeeery slowing noticing the frogs and lizards in the ditch along the roadside. Other students eagerly marched ahead quickly planting themselves in the limited shade from banana palm trees dotting the perimeter of field awaiting further instruction.
(While bringing up the rear of the line and nudging the reluctant athletes ahead, I consumed over half of my liter of water. It was going to be a long, hot two hours.)
The athletic field consisted of a half-circle shaped garden about 50 yards across and 15 yards wide with a few lovely trees and shrubs dotting the field.. An experienced teacher, retired from public school and helping out part-time here, led the lineup and instructions with her whistle and switch, a long, thin bamboo stick used to slap misbehaving students in the classroom and herd unruly athletes (mostly boys) on the field.
(I was thinking about cattle, Twitter feeds "teacher herds students with switch", Bible verses "spare the rod/spoil the child", and lawsuits.)
My assigned group of students, the lines Under 18 and Under 15 boys, so classified because of the track meet they will compete in next July, were instructed to take two laps around the field. Off they took and I decided to jog along behind them. After seeing one particularly sporty looking fellow slip on a curve in the wet grass, I noticed he was in his bare feet. A quick survey of the joggers showed about one third of the boys were running without shoes.
At an inconspicuous time, I quietly asked the principal if they were supposed to be participating without shoes.
(It seemed a valid question since yesterday we'd been told they needed shoes.)
He smiled and said, "Oh, they have shoes dedicated to basketball and they'll put them on when they get to the basketball court."
(Ok, this made sense.For a country that prides itself in flip flops or bare feet, saving shoes for something special seems logical. I get it. But, I was also aware the kids are kids and forgetting shoes is common...)
Then, he pointed one of the barefoot boys and said, "He's a great leader and he'll be able to lead the boys in a warm-up."
(Great! That saved from trying to be a PE teacher, especially since I had neither a whistle or a switch (Thank goodness on the latter).)
We walked to the back of the school and onto the basketball court where we proceeded to warm up. Barefoot Boy never did "find" or "put on" his shoes but he did, eventually, make it to the front of the group to lead a "warm-up."
(I was getting the sense that he's a leader in the more "negative" sense e.g. class clown, antics for laughs, etc. )
The first thing he did was place in hands in a prayer position with his fingertips touching his chin (kind of yoga or Zen-like) as he began the relaxing head stretches to the left, right, front and back, several wrist stretches and a couple of arm shakes. When he sat down on the concrete in the butterfly position, his classmates burst into laughter. He continued the "relaxing" stretch with his right hand and elbow pressing his knees to the ground and his just-a-tiny-bit self-conscious left hand pulling his t-shirt down between his legs.
(Seemed like enough of a warm-up to me so I was glad when he said it was time to play. Who needs sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, etc, when you can limber up your wrists for all the writing you'll do later in the day...)
One of the older boys divided the group into three teams of five for short games of basketball. Barefoot Boy remained barefoot and and was positioned on the court to play guard for team #1.
( I love the fact that natural consequences still play a major role in life here. And the absence of laws (or lack of enforcement thereof- not exactly sure which) made me fairly confident that if Barefoot Boy played basketball and got hurt, he or his parents wouldn't sue me. Play on!! )
Sure enough, several minutes into the second game, barefoot boy's toes were crushed under the foot of a much taller and heavier boy wearing some nice, large Nike basketball shoes. Barefoot Boy yelped and hobbled off the court to the nearest bathroom stall, a ceramic hole in the ground with water splashed all over the floor from the hose that is used in place of toilet paper and washed down his sore foot. Several minutes later he hobbled back on to the court to resume his play.
(Barefoot Boy is actually quite athletic, shoes or no shoes, and that's probably why it was a good idea that he played. His leadership and skill on the court was rivaled by none and it would have been a very long morning had he not been there to "get the ball rollling.")
Bottom line...having PE in Malaysia is difficult -there are very few indoor facilities and by 9:00 am it's extremely hot outside. To top that off, we get to study together in a small room with only a dry t-shirt (notice I didn't say clean) to change into for the rest of the day...Going barefoot seems like a minor inconvenience.
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