Until today, the end of every school term for our children, Ibrahim and Rahamatu, was thrilling. We always enjoyed getting their report cards, going through their grades, and congratulating them on their hard work. Ibrahim is only in kindergarten and Rahamatu is only 4 years old (pre-primary 2 on the British system). However, we have taught them to attach value to their preparatory studies. Thus, every time they would bring home their results, we would reward them at Mr. Biggs (Nigerian version of McDonalds) or Oasis Bakery (closest thing to Dunkin Donuts).
However, today I was shocked out of my seat when I saw that Ibrahim had dropped from 1st to 13th in his class of 37 children. I began to analyze the fine details and saw that he had dropped in moral instruction, writing, and social studies. As I looked through his exams, I saw that most of his mistakes in moral instruction and social studies were due to merely social dissimilarities. For instance, one question on his moral instruction exam read: “When elders are in the room, children should keep quiet.” Of course, Ibrahim answered that question by underlining “No” instead of “Yes” reducing his score on that test.
On another exam in social studies, he was to fill in the blank, “There are ______ types of family.” Unfortunately, the nature of the teaching in this primary school is through rote memorization without conceptual understanding. Therefore, he only knew to write “Daddy” because his teacher’s explanation of “2” didn’t make sense to him. If his teacher would have explained “nuclear” or “extended”, he would have understood. However, the answer “2” just appeared to be too simple of an explanation to him.
Some of the rhymes like “Ding Dang Bell” are hardly intelligible to us because they are sung in the local English accent. “Ding Dong Bell” would sound to us a bit more familiar but the intonation is far from recognizable. Other songs like “Tick says the Clock” are equally difficult to decipher with all of the “O” sounds being pronounced as a long vowel. We laughed when we first heard Ibrahim say that he wanted to go outside and play “boll” not “ball.” It was equally funny to us to hear Rahamatu say that we wanted to go to school with her “bige” (with a long “I”) not “bag.”
After reading this, my first reaction was to pull him out of this school and strictly began home-schooling. Then, I thought about how much he would miss out on the blessing of socialization. Shortly thereafter, I considered surveying all of the “American-based” schools in Nigeria to reduce his cultural frustrations. Yet, I knew that simply putting him in a “homogeneous island of American children” might not be the best for him either. These are struggles of the kingdom in which parents of “third culture kids” must wrestle.
Thank you for wrestling with us in prayer for the Great Teacher to bless all His servant’s children who are grappling with their identity as “bi-cultural children.”
Ibrahim and Rahamatu In Their Uniforms
Ibrahim and Rahamatu Picking Green Beans
Ibrahim and Rahamatu’s School Pictures
Ibrahim With His Birthday Cake
