Starters

In a school where I used to teach in the 1970s (Stratford High School), I sometimes used what are called ‘starters’ to get pupils started in writing projects. These could be incomplete sentences which I would write on the blackboard for the pupils to choose from if they wished. They would use them to take off in any direction their mind took them. One of the best results came from a young Maori boy, Peta Nahi, who was the only one having difficulty starting as the rest were all heads down and away.

I went and sat with him.

‘I don’t know what to write about, Sir’, he said quietly.

I nodded. ‘Well, let’s see. What do you like doing, Peta?’

‘I like motorbikes; I draw pictures of them.’

‘That sounds great! You could draw your pictures in your book and write a little about each one.’

His eyes lit up and he smiled. ‘Yes I could,’ he said with some confidence.

‘And,’ I added, ‘you could make each page different. Say on one page you could draw a line from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner, draw your picture on one half and write about it on the other; and try to make each page different from the rest.’

I could see he was itching to start straight away, so I left him not really knowing what the result would be.
I was thrilled later as he handed in his work. He’d filled his exercise book with his drawings of motorbikes of all descriptions, starting on the front, from which he’d removed the usual exercise book cover and drawn a fine picture of a motorbike. The rest of the pages had similar drawings with notes, all different, displaying a wide knowledge of his subject. It was one of the best efforts a pupil ever produced. I was so happy for him that I asked his permission to show it to the headmaster, who came back a short time later to the classroom with me and commended Peta for his work…

The thing was, before Peta left my classroom one day, he handed me his exercise book and insisted that I have it to remember him by, and he wouldn’t let me refuse. I still have his book.

From that day on, I have liked to think that teachers, like parents, sow seeds in young minds, knowing that eventually fruition of one kind or another will result.

I wonder where he is today?

© Dennis Crompton 2014