The Sunday News
Charles Dube
“NO to bullying. No to drugs and substance abuse. No to early marriages”. These messages were very clear to all learners at the recently held children’s Independence celebrations hosted by the First Family at State House in Bulawayo.
Bullying – Image taken from Shutterstock
It is unthinkable that in this day and age there are learners who are still barbaric as to bully other learners in the pretext of initiating them into boarding school.
It is an established fact that bullying is not allowed in schools. The Government and schools are very strict against this evil practice as it affects learners both physically and emotionally at times. Many learners have lost confidence at schools because they live in fear of other learners.
How can you be confident when your tormentor is always around you and inflicting pain on you? When a learner loses confidence and is always afraid it is obvious that learner’s performance will be affected.
Bullying comes in many forms. For example, as already alluded to it can be physical where some learners are beaten up for trivial issues. Some learners are made to carry out physical duties like doing laundry and the like for the tormentor. The list goes on and on.
These practices go on for a long time without being noticed by the authorities. It takes a few learners with guts to stand up against that abuse and seek redress from the school authorities.
Since it has been realised that bullying damages other learners’ physically and emotionally school authorities nowadays quickly act to stop that. This is unlike in the past where for example some teachers, boarding masters and mistresses would somehow encourage senior learners to beat up juniors so as to brighten them up.
Most of the time those officials did not mean that to be taken seriously. But, you know some learners would take that seriously and kept other learners in perpetual fear and subjection.
Today the message is clear: “No to bullying.” Taking drugs and substance abuse has become rampant among learners. This starts from simple things like smoking cigarettes.
Drugs and substance abuse – Image taken from Shutterstock
Many learners starting from primary school are already into smoking cigarettes. Such learners if there is someone in the hood peddling drugs are quick to fall for them. Many parents of today, unfortunately will deny that their children are involved into these damaging drugs and substances.
The moment a child discovers that the parent or guardian is on his side they become uncontrollable. He or she sinks into the vice and it becomes very difficult to get out of it. This is unexaggerated but factual. Fighting bullying and drug and substance abuse should not be let to schools only. The whole community should come in and help fight the scourge.
This to a certain extent is a digression from our core business of discussing the basics of learning. However, the issue is, no effective learning can take place without addressing aspects which have a negative bearing on the learning process.
A learner with a sober mind will be focused in the learning process. That learner will attentively take instructions from the teachers. Having grasped the instructions well automatically his or performance will be sound.
You remember the approach to composition writing. Follow these aims: Aim 1 — Make the right choice and plan carefully. Aim 2 — Capture the interest of the reader by writing an effective introduction. Aim 3 — Maintain interest by varying sentence construction and vocabulary pace. Aim 4 — Have a strong ending. Aim 5 — Check writing thoroughly and objectively to correct careless errors.
Going back to aim 1: Making the right choice. Remember there are three main types of imaginative writing: Narrating — telling a story. Descriptive — creating a scene or experience in vivid detail. Vivid means in clear detail, vibrant, glowing, intense and colourful detail to mention just a few.
Discursive — discussing and expressing a point of view convincingly. Most composition titles indicate quite clearly what type of writing is required. For instance, some examples of topics under each type:
Discursive — Traditional healers do more harm than good. What are your views? Narrative: Write a story which ends with these words: “I blamed myself for being dishonest.”
Descriptive: Write a description of busy market place. Describe a typical day of your holiday. However, if you are presented with an abstract title like: ‘Rain — the life-giver’ then any of the three writing styles is acceptable.
Narrative approach — “Moyo’s eyes filled with tears as he felt the first drops of rain cold on his cheeks. Now his crops would grow.”
Discursive approach: This is the most difficult type of composition to write and requires the greatest skill. Now you know which style you prefer. Be guided by that preference when you choose your composition titles. Take these three steps to make right choice:
Identify the type of writing required by the title. Choose the title which fires your imagination and about which you would enjoy writing. Write about something you know so that you can draw on personal experience for the content.
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