Growing up Country

It's just past midnight and I finally finished grading my batch of descriptive papers for writing class tomorrow. I thought you might enjoy reading one of the student's descriptions of the village school she attended as a child. Quite a few of my students are from the countryside and worked very hard in schools like this to earn a chance at college.

"My First Classroom

In my kindergarten year, I entered my first classroom. It was old and ragged. The whole color was black: black blackboard, black roof, black floor, and black wall. The blackboard was dirty and rude... Under the blackboard was the podium. There were holes in it. I think when the teacher was walking on it, she had to be careful about her foot, or it would be dangerous. The roof was also broken. Study in the classroom was very difficult, especially on a rainy day -- students always got wet. We dared not touch the wall. In our minds, if we pushed it, it would collapse. On the wall there were windows without glass. So the students had to wear enough clothes (almost all their clothes) when studying in the winter. Then there were the desks and chairs. The were all disabled, without one or two legs, or with one or two legs that were shorter than the others... That was my first classroom. It collapsed in a heavy rain and there was a new building built on it, beautiful and bright."