Bertie, my interpreter, and I walked a short distance to the school early in the morning. We arrived at 8:10 and were greeted by the headmaster. He led us to a crowded classroom and introduced us to the teacher. He was a nice man. The headmaster left and the teacher introduced us and then led us to places in the very back so we could observe everybody. The school had a large central courtyard with rooms around its perimeter. There were several different classrooms, one grade per classroom. All the buildings were one story with big windows and large entrances. Their desks are not like ours. They are a table with a bench attached and could fit about three students each. The walls were made of thick cement and they had no decorations. There was a long movable blackboard in the front of the class and a bigger blackboard attached to the wall. I looked upon the board and was amazed to find the attendance of the class was posted. There were 69 students (41 boys and 28 girls) present. There seemed to be no age limit because people from 5 to 15 years old were in the room.

The students were sitting in rows but in no particular order, boys and girls were scattered through the room. There was only one empty desk and Bertie and I sat down. The day started out with Civic Education, how to act in the public or with the family. The discussion began with the "joyful moments of the family" like birth, naming ceremonies, marriage and circumcision. Reading was next. It was taught by reading an article entitled " The erosion of soil and the progress of the desert." The teacher was really interactive with the children as a group, but not individually. He talked during the majority of the lesson, except for short periods where they worked on an exercise.

Recess was at about 10:00 in the morning after the reading lesson. Before leaving for recess they sang the National anthem for Mali in Bambara. During recess the kids milled around and talked with each other. They had no playground equipment to play on. Most kids just stayed at their desks. The teacher called them back into class and they sat down. The teacher passed out math books. They were pretty thin compared to ours.

The math lesson was very interesting because they were using the metric system instead of the English system used in the U.S.A. Because of that fact I had a bit of trouble with what was happening but I soon got the hang of it and was able to do the questions. When the students know the answer and want to say it out loud, they raise one hand and snap their finger yelling out "Moi Monsieur!", meaning teacher call on me. Some students went to the blackboard to work out the math problems. At the end of every subject taught they had an evaluation, basically a short test.

They start school at 8:00 and break at 12:00. They go back to school at 3:00 in the afternoon and stay until 4:30 or 5:00. The students are assigned homework and they also have school holidays. I spoke with a 12 year old student named Nouhoun Bocoum. His favorite subject is math and he wants to be a teacher when he grows up. He enjoys learning. I spoke to the teacher and asked him if he enjoyed teaching. He said yes, that teaching was the key to all knowledge.