The learner

CHOOSING A SEED FROM A ROTTEN COB

DEAR DEAD DAYS

Relaxing in the staffroom, after preparing my lesson plan for my grade twelve class. I hear a knock on the door before breaktime which i ignore for the first time. Then i hear a small voice saying" HODINI". This interests me and i respond only to find it's a small boy putting on rinkled uniforms with a very shot tie like a tail of a goat. I realise that form ones are reporting this morning. "Come in please" i respond. The boy comes through and greets me. " Good afternoon madam" i respond " good morning to you" This snario reminds me of our old days at school. I remember that even us we did not know how to speak good english when were in grade eight. Not only were we unable to speak good english but we were also very backward, i must confess.

Because of growing up in the village, most of the things were not familiar to us. I still remember one colleague from one province whose name was Lubasi Ikachana. He had challenges with using the toilet. At one time Lubasi had an accident. Instead of sitting nicely, he had a habit of climbing on top of the toilet pan. Unfortunately, one leg slipped and it ended up into the wasis. When he entered the domitory, everyone became suspicious because he introduced a new quality of oxygen which was so disgusting. We had to pinch the nose and run out of the domitory to catch the original air because the room was polluted with a pathetic pangent smell.

In some occasions we exibited some backwardness when it came to dancing. Those days we were treated to intertaiment, especially during the weekend. We would watch people as they danced on the stage. Instead of going to dance on the stage we would go outside and dance abit and go inside to copy more styles. This and many other habits made us look dull and this dullness was only gotten rid of by what was commonly called mockery.To narrate this mistreatment again makes me very annoyed that if i can have a chance to meet those people who mocked me, there can be total war.

My first day at Monze boys secondary School, a boarding school in 1987, was so interesting. I remember being addressed by someone who i thought was actually one of the teachers. He was too smart to be a pupil. His surname was Kaposa. This was a kind of personality who would just stand on the stage and the who group would go like sheeeee! Then he would continue. "Good afternoon boys" and we would answer " Good afternoon sir" Although, Kaposa the Headboy looked as if he was a teacher, he was actually a very kind person. Up to now I do not remember seeing him cane anyone. He was one of those people who are not easily seen and as a result he commanded alot of respect.

But there was this prefect who looked even older than my uncle by the name of Clement. A prefect who never used to tack in his shirt. To make matters worse, his shirt was very big with curved lines at the back, making it look like a running track. As if that was not enough, i do not remember seeing him in shoes. He always used to were tropicals. Clement was a very fierce man and word had it, that even some teachers used to distance themselves from him. He always carried a short horse pipe in his pocket. One day he caught us across Namwala road. That was the time i experienced heavy caning. He caned us 6 strokes each. I felt as if my buttocks were melting. We had a rough time during our early days. To avoid such experiences, i started moving in the group of grade elevens. As a result of this mockery thing, many of us became jackedup. Our spocken english as well as written english improved drastically.

Therefore, the english spocken around especially nowdays, can not deceive me in anyway because it's not a measure of intelligence. Ask the chaps of nowdays to write a composition. Worse more ask them to write an essay. They can not go beyond ten lines, they run out of words. Those days we would even go for easy writing competitions. Looking at the spellings, it's something else contrary to how they speak. Nowdays, puuu nothing. Those days, on other days we would go and listen to debate. We had a very powerful debate group which included people like one Emmanuel Hamatwi, Francis Sakufiwa and My good friend Doubt Cibamba, the PS

THE EASIEST NAME TO DESTROY IS YOUR OWN

NEGATIVE ATTITUDE

Negative attitude is a desposition , feeling or manner which is not constructive, cooperative or optimistic. Negative attitude can affect anyone, just about anywhere. For some people, it's at home. Perhaps you know of someone who has a bad habit about doing chores. It is an expression of criticism of or pessimism about something. It is an act of negative thinking, hopelessness, despair, despondency, bleakness, lucky of enthusiasm, aparthy, indifference and negativeness.

Negative attitude can manifest itself in many ways. Some of its characteristics are negative self talk, blaming others, comparing oneself to others, having unrealistic expectations and expressions, holding to past experiences. A positive attitude is great but negativity can be problematic. Some of the negative attitude behavior on others include lower productivity, higher rates of absence, less team cohesion and low morale.

JELOUS CONTINUES

If buying a car is wasting money, growing your own crops is dirt and a waste of time and resources, going to church is nothing because the church is in the heart of a person, eating meat is not a good health practice, going to school is a waste of time and money, while marrying a beautiful woman is not good because other men will be targeting her.

How come you are standing in one place, waiting for transport which is a waste of money to buy? How come you are struggling to speak english just to beg for the same useless transport? How come you spend alot of time at funeral houses eating meat without sensetizing people on good eating habits? How come you walk to church every Sunday in your black suit when you have a church in the heart? How come you are struggling to look holy when you already have a church in your heart?

Jelous is not good for me. It is not good for you. It is not good for them because it does not help anyone to grow upright. It is just a spirit of the devil. If you intertain this spirit you become a jealous person. A person who can not appreciate other people's achievements.