TEACHING AND IMPACTING VALUES IN SCHOOLS

Last week, my eight years old daughter came back from school and reminded me that they were asked to come to school the next day with a bucket, a soap, flipflop, one dirty cloth, cloth peg and a change of clothes which was preferably their sports wear.

This took my mind back to an earlier message sent to me by their class teacher that they would be having a laundry practical titled "Swish Swash Splash". I immediately went to the laundry room to bring out the needed items so that I won't forget any especially since they are using the school bus services. This is a hack that I deployed and have always helped me not just to get them ready for school on them but also to avoid them forgetting or leaving anything behind.

The school is an institution where the children spends substantial amount of their time. As they advance more in age the time they spend in school gets longer than the time they actually get to stay at home. So it feels so good that the school is not only teaching them how to read and write but inculcating in them values that they need for the society to thrive. Among other things are being taught in school that I highly applaud are ; physical survival skills, mental survival skills, cleaning and household organization, Honesty, entrepreneurship, networking etc.

Now back to the laundry practical. The children were taught how to do the laundry themselves without waiting for their parents or their nannies to do it for them. This is actually one great survival skill that they need to know. My daughter do wash her socks once in a while at home but she stopped because I was too busy to supervise her and make sure that she did a good job thus their nanny took over the work of attending to their laundry. That is for my daughter but I am certain that there are other children that have never washed a thing in their life because maybe the parents didn't see a need for them to do it themselves of maybe because they too are too busy to supervise a child washing clothes so they would rather outsource help.

At the laundry practical titled "Swish Swash Splash" the children were thought everything they needed to know about doing their own laundry. They were shown the materials needed and the right amount to use. It's either you are washing with a machine or you are making use of your hands. In Nigeria, it's always safer to teach the children how to use both because we are yet to start enjoying 24/7 electricity supply hence the need to also know how to do laundry with hands.

Washing with a washing machine ofcourse saves time as you can use your energy for something else whereas you can get stressed up while washing with hands.

The instructor taught them how to wash efficiently with hands to achieve a good result and she indicated places that they must take special concern in washing and these places include the collar and the armpit section.

By the time she was done, the children were all fired up and motivated to start doing their laundry themselves. They brought out the dirty clothes that they came with and started washing them with hands.

It was an exciting experience for them and after washing they hung it to dry.

My daughter especially was very happy and inspired to take up the work of doing the house laundry. She told me she can wash with her hands and can also use the machine effectively. The next day, before I came back from work she had already done both her's and her sister's laundry.

It was a good practical indeed and I commend the school for taking out that time to teach the children all.they need to know to survive.

All PICTURES ARE MINE.