Tim Jensen

In both 2015 and 2016 I offered to teach any interested NDW students in Standards 6-8 the rudiments of Lincoln-Douglas style (one on one) debate.  Our first task was to figure out a subject for the debate to which Samburu students could comfortably relate.  Last year we together chose the topic, “Which are better: big families or small families?”  Families of varied size in the village allowed the students to speak from personal experience.  This past June I was struck by the remarkable “linguistic” achievement of all NDW students, who as native Samburu speakers must learn both Swahili and English, and take all their courses and exams in English.  Thinking I might tap into a possible vein of cultural pride, I suggested the topic, “Should courses at Ndonyo Wasin be taught in Samburu rather than in English?”  A number of boy and girl students brainstormed pro’s and con’s which we listed on the worn chalkboard in one of the classrooms.  Students then chose their favorite points and wrote debate speeches on either side of the issue.  Using an iPhone, we filmed them delivering these speeches, transferred the footage onto a DVD using an app on a Packer laptop, and the next day showed the results to a large crowd on the big screen in the NDW library.  I should mention that there was overwhelming support among students for continuing the teaching of courses in English;  one argument offered was that if Samburu was used in the classroom, “our friends from Packer couldn’t understand us.”