Wednesday, December 1, 2010

4 Alpha- Mental Alabahda

"Pam! pam! pah!"; the sound Mrs. Quaye's whip made on my upturned palm. It is Monday, the day every pupil in 4 Alpha dreads; the period is right after morning devotion; the standard drill, "Take out your mental books". 'Mental alabahda' (a term coined from the craziness of doing mental mathematics) takes place Morning mornings after devotion. Mrs. Quaye, our class teacher, dictates the questions with only a minute interval between questions for answers to be written down. The maximum number of questions, ten(10), were too much considering the fact that for every mistake made, you get a lash from the slim-lined whip Mrs Quaye claims as hers. The frequency of lashing eased some-what when a pass mark is set, and the setting of it did not start until we were in our second term in class 4. I remember envying the other class, 4 Beta, because their class teacher did not conduct mental mathematics drills. I appreciated Mrs. Quaye for it, though I will always hate the lashes; I learned focus and practise.

Mrs. Quaye would usually send me(sometimes accompanied by someone of my choice) to get her 'fufu' from my cousin's chop-bar during lunch time.

I ate pork chops for the first time in class 4 when I had lunch with Mrs. Quaye's daughter, Sheila. I also learned I was allergic to pork because I got skin rashes right afterward and again when I disputed that fact. So please don't be offering me pork chops or anything to food to do with pigs any time within my lifetime.

Next week: 5 Toniolies

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gosh and here I was going to invite you to christmas dinner. This year, I decided to make pork dishes :( :P

Sorry bout the lashes. I once got sixteen on my back and one time the ruler the teacher was using on my fingers broke and cut me :(

I remember miss donkor gave us mental drills in class 3 and in class four, mr botwey was surprised to find that i couldn't read a poem along with the class. Ms. Davis was the one to discover that I was chewing the poems and that what I was delivering was what I had managed to learn by rote. Eventually Mr. Botwey also started up mental drills but his punishments were excercises (he doubled as a PE teacher) so I ended up not minding them. Oh that and a rarely fell below the pass mark ;)

Aba T. Tetteh said...

Daixy, maybe you can prepare a side dish for me without pork? I don't want to miss that dinner, especially since you are cooking. :)

Sorry about your lashes too. Teachers have an affinity for that. Right?

Depending on the difficulty of the questions the pass mark was usually 6 out of 10. Clever you, not falling below the pass mark. :)

Ghana_Hall_of_Shame said...

You should try pork again but this time have it prepared without salt. Salt + pork is what you are allergic to.
If you believe me, I have an airport I'm trying to sell for cheap. :-)

I never got to do mental in school :-( I used to envy friends in other schools that did.

Mike

Asomasi said...

Nope! Mental certainly wasn't a favourite of mine. In Class 6, I and the girl I sat next to devised a plan. She'd work the even numbers, I'd work the odd. I don't remember how effective that was, though. Asem oo...

Aba T. Tetteh said...

@Mike: Lolz. What say you about me buying that airport?
You envied those you did mental? Come and let me drill you.

Aba T. Tetteh said...

@Asomasi: Ah, the things we do when are young. :)

Ghana_Hall_of_Shame said...

Funny but I really envied them. (Some people always want what others have regardless of what they have)
Another thing was "awa-dey" (our day). I envied those same friends cos they got to do that at their school and we didn't. lol