Call: Story, story
Response: Story
Call: Once upon a time
Response: Time, time
🙂 Well that's the way my generation did it as children. If you know, you know.😊
So it's memory lane time right now, with this latest Hivenaija weekly prompt. It was in my secondary school days and in the very last class– SSS 3.
FOUNDATION
First of all, it was one of the best schools in the nation as a whole, famed for discipline and intelligence. Part of our school Anthem says–
"Delta Steel Technical High School,
Where new breed of scholars spring up,
With brawns and brains and skills so high,
We come from out of solid steel..."
So that's just how we roll(sic) then. It was a company owned school. Delta Steel Company was the name, a Government owned Engineering company. My Dad left the popular oil company SPDC(SHELL) to work in DSC. This shows you the quality DSC possessed and promised then.
The high standards of the company was perfectly mirrored in the school. So much attention to hardwork and excellence and the stand-out push for discipline. I think that this enthronement of discipline went too far at times, that fear was driven into the heart of students as per properly relating with the teachers. That's where my story today comes in. By the way, someone(eg @balikis95, @whitneyalexx, @loveth97, @ashiru, @vocup ...) might remember this same company in my write up(hn-wk28), where as a child, I nearly set a Power plant on fire with bush-burning.
NOW HERE
Now in SSS 3, I was already a leader, being one of the school's prefects. My set were particularly and exceptionally gifted in football. As a tradition, every year a football competition is played in the school. Infact it was more or less part of our curriculum.
The entire students were placed in different groups randomly called houses. These houses were to compete with each other in sporting and literary events. So we had the inter-house football competition. It is often the case that since a house can only present one team, the houses are usually represented by the senior students who have more skill, strength and stamina. This is where my set of SSS 3 students were exceptional. More than any other set I witnessed an impressive number of boys of my set had been playing in this competition since their junior secondary days– they were so good that they were preferred to senior boys– so they were more than experienced at their SSS 3 level.
TURN OF EVENTS
News however filtered into our ears that the Principal says that this customary football competition will not hold in my set and we really didn't know the reason why. This wasn't the bother of the girls, but the boys were troubled by this news, as it was an all-boys event.
One morning we received quite a number of SSS 3 boys from other classes into our classroom with long faces, complaining about the recent news. Now I was in the "A" class(or arm). We had six SSS 3 classes, labeled A–F. The "A" arm is called the "science class" where you have basically the Medicine and Engineering students. This class often produces majority of the school's prefects, or at least the top positions. So in my "A" class we had the school's Head-boy and his assistant, the Head-girl's office, the Social prefect, the Labour prefect and other key positions.
So now you know why that band of SSS 3 boys headed for my arm. They felt power belonged to that arm and so the leaders can help speak with the school authority for a change of mind. Alas the band met with disappointment. The top school prefects in the "A" arm were too scared to undertake the task of engaging the school's authority in a dialogue. This is why I said, the discipline went too far at times, a vast majority of students became too scared of what I call, simple things, because indeed the fear of expulsion was real. Also it was their last class in SSS 3 and they wanted to play safe.
WE AROSE FROM THE ASHES
Since the leadership were not responding, the move was nose-diving to a halt. At about that moment yours sincerely having been watching the whole scene arose and said to them, let us go to the principal. Yours sincerely was the Workshop prefect, not in the highest echelon of the prefect committee, but still a prefect in every way. You need to see the sudden change of look in the eyes of the band of SSS3 boys when I offered to lead them to the principal, gloom instantly turned to excitement.
We marched down to the principals office complex with the conclusion that we must see him. The moment we got there, it seemed like we came back to our senses and a certain fear came on us again as we stopped.
We looked at ourselves and we had to shake off fear, but had to quickly restrategise by saying we should not all enter into his office as we wanted to. Now I was the only prefect brave enough to be there, so the strategy waa that I went in with one or two other SSS 3 boys to see the Principal. The secretary let us in, because you must go through her office first, and I spoke articulately to the Principal on why we came and told him that we didn't come alone that guys were outside.
At this point, to my surprise, he arose from his sit and requested to speak with the small crowd of SSS 3 boys himself. That gesture of his alone, that humility to come out, helped to douse the tension. I wish you knew how small students felt before the school's teachers, not to talk of the Principal.
So he stepped out of the office as we led him to were guys were gathered outside, but still within his office complex. He gave a touching speech appealing to us that this new regulation was for our own good, so that we can concentrate more on our upcoming final exams. He reasoned that the football competition will be a huge distraction.
With the benefit of hindsight, he was wrong and my set performed below our usual level. Just after my set he was slated for corruption and removed from office– he didn't oversee the very next set.
By and large I was satisfied and very fulfilled with the fact that we heard from the horse's mouth, I was satisfied we conquered unreasonable fear and did the right thing by peacefully laying our complain to the authority.
Furthermore, this act of mine created an air of reverence for me once I returned back to my "A" arm. Like a president, I was the one addressing the class(even the Head-boy) and giving them information fresh from the Principal's mouth.
It was nice to step-up and assume responsibility.
Nigeria needs such kind of endeavours, too many folks sitting on the fence, watching things go bad.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers