Story By Otieno Mjomba
Last week on Friday, 27th November was an unusual day in our school calendar as Christmas, for the first time was celebrated in November under the watchful eyes of the teachers, parents and the students. This happened as the pupils came to an end of a successful virtual learning session that ran from April 22nd. The first term of the virtual learning period took seven weeks with the second term that started in late June running for the same duration. After three weeks of break, the third term started in September 2nd running successfully for twelve weeks to Friday,27th November 2020.
During the event, the headteacher was in particular appreciative of the parents’ support throughout the virtual learning process.
I was moved to tears to realise that I had a compassionate team of soldiers that were not ready to back off. This spirit will forever be with me. That at Doonholm Catholic Primary School we genuinely care for our brothers and sisters because we are a family and brother’s keeper.
In a session that took 100 minutes, pupils were all adorned in their class name colours and dresses with Angels wearing like angels and Disciples too following the suite. Different talents managed to perform their favourite renditions of their favourite Christmas Songs with parents and teachers left to nodding and following the rhythms coming from the melodic voices. To crown it up, the School band belted the famous ‘Feliz Navidad’ song before giving room for teachers and class eight students to show their new version of Jerusalema challenge.
In her message on Christmas, Sister Wilma encouraged the audience to maintain the Christmas spirit of giving and not expecting to be given. She also advised parents on the effect of giving more room to their children to run the show at home indicating that this has led to so many lasting challenges in the families.
The exposure that our young ones are having if not controlled are leading to many evils in the society. The media is a wash of the stories that i can term as negative effects of technology to our children. We have given too much access to the smartphones that the children are now seeing them as their rights. We are not concerned about what they are consuming online as we term this as interfering with their privacy. We are not keen with knowing their social media handles because we feel that we are not the dot com generation. The family time has turned out to be a physical presence moment but absence in mind, emotions and spirits.
She cautioned parents telling them that they were figuratively rearing lions that will soon consume them. She encouraged the parents to bring back the family values and family moments. She challenged parents to show the young ones the way if they really care for them.
Let’s know what these children are watching online. Whom they are chatting with and many more. Put parental security features to help you out when you can’t physically monitor their time.
This was the last major event of the year in the school virtual calendar that followed a series of activities including Virtual Talent and Cultural shows in addition to virtual trips and other life skill activities.
Therefore, as we go for a one month break, we must never forget to put into practice the lessons learnt during this period. That we must care for ourselves to help care for others because without self there are no others.
