Du-du nuts

So last night I finally got home at 11.45pm. Here’s the story (featuring Du Do Nuts)

My stage V students seem to lack willingness to learn. They always have. As we approach the exam (its today at 11 something) their level of panic has risen. On Monday the rep approached me and told me there was something they wanted me to discuss with the class. When I arrived, a past exam paper was thrust in my direction and a student who did not look at me, said:
“question one”.

Question one was about different ways in which Javascript can make static web pages become dynamic. I talked for a while about what the terms in the question meant and then invited them to provide some answers of their own.

Silence. (As usual)

After enough of this I left telling them they should be ashamed of themselves.

Then on tuesday they called me via one of the other teachers and annouced that, since we’d not finished the syllabus they would not sit the exam until they were ready. I was furious, the [bad word deleted]s have been so fucking lazy and uncooperative all term they deserve to skip the exam and just fail. (Except not all of them, so I had to propose something for the ones who I believe ought to to be able to pass an exam in the subject.)

So shortly after that meeting I started an intense revision/ exam-coaching / theory lesson session that started at about 11am and finished, as I said, at 11.45pm with breaks for lunch and supper.

The evening session started at 7.30 — after the catholic students get back from Mass — by which time it was dark! The lights of the classroom, and the security lamps outside the dining room attract huge numbers of small beetles. After the rain — and it rained cats and dogs yesteday morning — they come out at night and fly toward the nearest lamp: small peanut-sized brown beetles. The wall is almost invisible behind a layer of little buzzing bugs.

I rock-stepped outside the classroom and trippled in through the door and shut it quick behind me. Still there were dozens of the buggers buzzing about the room, getting on the board rubber (eraser!), in our hair (those of us who have any), eyes, etc. Made the evening session more fun.

I can’t believe the sesson lasted four hours! My mobile ‘phone has stopped working for some unknonw reason (maybe it has a Du-du in it) so I have no way to tell the time (I’ve not worn a watch for years). When we finally stopped the session I asked the class where all the beetles came from. One of the ladies answered earnestly:
“They are born”
As I considered the consequences of this revelation another volunteered the information that:
“They are called Du-du nuts”. I like that name.

The ohter Kenyan word I learned last night is the Kikuyu word for ‘dog’.
“Suppose you’re building a GUI; dragging and dropping…”, I started, in answer to a question about IDEs.
They giggled.
“What?”
“Gui means dog in Kikuyu”