How do you motivate young children to learn computer? A real teacher could tell you, but I’m not a real teacher, so I have had to figure it out on my own. There are three principles that have worked for me:

1. Empathy. One of the cutest first grade girls of all time, Joy, came in to computer class last term and told me that she was sad because her parents would not be coming for mid term break. Then she started to cry. I can’t stand little girls crying: I have had sons, so I have developed immunity to boy tears, but I just can’t handle girl tears very well. As we sat there, with me trying to think of something helpful to say, I started crying, which caused Joy to stop crying so she could comfort me.
2. Negative Encouragement: I think I am a natural encourager, but that gets old fast. So I told my sixth grade class that they would get a treat if they were able to master some database problems. Then I told them that I didn’t want to spend money on THEM, I wanted to spend it on ME. So anytime they made a mistake, I praised them, and anytime they did something right, I yelled at them. I knew I was on to something when one kid bragged: `He yelled at me FOUR times today!’
3. Humiliation: For third graders, the only thing that works is to give them an opportunity to humiliate the teacher. I can’t tell you why, but on a certain spreadsheet section I am doing with the third grade, I could get nowhere with them until I told them that for anyone who could do it perfectly. I would bunny hop around the class. Six minutes later, every kid had it right. In fact, I was forced to say something I never expected to say in my life when three kids asked for retroactive bunny hops:Don’t get greedy with bunny hops

Nan went to a woman’s retreat this weekend, so that left me alone with 10 boys. Here is what I learned:

I have grown in an important way. I know how to handle sick kids now. When we were first here, when a kid came into the room and announce that he was going to get sick, I would jump up in a panic and yell `Not here! Go to the toilet!! NOT HERE!!!’ Often the shock of being loudly instructed would result in an undesirable consequence.

On Friday night, a kid came into my room and announced that he was going to get sick. I realized my role is more like a hostage negotiator. I got up slowly from the bed and said in soothing tones `I am so sorry; where does it hurt?’ as I gently but firmly guided him to the bathroom. As soon as he got into the bathroom, I HIT HIM IN THE KIDNEY AND SCREAMED `EMPTY IT RIGHT NOW!!’ Besides the gentle wistfulness of the last sentence, I have realized that some discussions work better in bathrooms than bedrooms.

The drought has been ferocious in the last few months, and since Nan was gone, I met with some of the vegetable ladies. I asked one how her garden was, and she started crying. I always have been so glib, but Africa often leaves me with nothing to say. I patted her on the back, but I didn’t know what to say. I’ve never been hungry, and my life doesn’t hinge on whether my garden comes in. I just didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to give empty words, but that is all I felt I had.

YP

PS. This is a picture of our son JT delivering maize.