3 T'ings Bahamian School Taught Us!

What three things did you learn in school?

This month has been dedicated to "school", which I consider different from "education". While school is a place we were educated, school in The Bahamas was that and so much more. For the past two weeks we've walked down memory lane with ring play games like "Blue Bird through my window" to the Lunch Time prayer "thank you for the world SO SWEET". I hope you enjoyed it! We often forget the little intricate pieces of our school experience that played such a vital role on our childhood that stemmed directly from our BAHAMIAN CULTURE.

To wrap up the end of the "school" themed month, we're going to cover 5 tings school taught us!

1. We shouldn't have grown up so fast

The number one type of comments for the last two weeks under various post on our social media page has been:

"I MISS BEING A KID!"

"OH TO BE YOUNG AGAIN!"

"WHY DID I GROW UP?"

"WOW THIS TOOK ME BACK."

Granted we didn't have a choice but, boy why was I trying to act 21 at the age of 15? LOL. Relax CHILDHOOD SELF! Take your time, there's no need to rush. Nonetheless, here we are, a little bit older, hopefully wiser, missing school but, what can we learn from taking a glimpse into this compress time capsule we put together for you?

A message for them:

Well, if you have an opportunity to pass a message onto a kid that's in school now, tell them to bask in it, all of it: the friends, the annoying teachers, the 20 laps around school for P.E., the detention, the good grades, the not so good grades, the games, the laughter, everything! Because it won't last forever and then when you look back, you'll wish you enjoyed it a bit more by playing one more game.

A message for you:

Take the time to be a kid sometimes. We get so caught up in adulting we forget to carry these things that made life and school SO FUN with us. Play twee lee lee (and if you too grown for that) at least talk about it, or teach someone the game. For lunch, say your old lunch time school prayer and then burst out laughing because your a grown adult reciting the prayer like you a child. You heart and soul deserves it.

We have to age, but we don't have to get old.

Pass these memories onto someone, it's the only way to keep our culture to stay alive.

2. Ring play and "sports day" MAY BE a distant memory but, if you asked me to play "twee lee lee", I DERE!

Oh the games we came up in school! I literally have no clue where they came from but, here we were playing "twee lee lee" or "numbers" or "concentration". These games not only passed the time but, it was the source of so much laughter, competition, focus and fun! We literally played for break time, lunch time and after school! And don't let someone go to Andros or Freeport to their Grammie for the summer! School semester start and all you hear is "y'all lemme show y'all this new game I learn!" This where I learnt the game:

"Shame Shame Shame! I will never go to Mexico no more more more!"

Did you learn/ hear this one before or it was only me and my class on our grade 3 field trip to Cat Island? And again, no clue where this game popped up from, I just know we played this game over and over and over again, until Ms. Fernander finally was like "GO. TO. SLEEP."

Wherever these games came from, I'm happy they were apart of my experience but, I hope they are getting passed on to the next "BROWN GIRL IN DA RING".

Now as for SPORTS DAY, here's where you learnt about pride, loyalty, competition, sportsmanship and true happiness. There is nothing like running against your friend for your inter-house school group or being in the stands screaming your head off cheering for your friend! It is literally so exhilarating and something we looked forward to so much!

Should we have an "iisabahamianbey sport day"?

3. Despite The Bahamas being made of so many different islands, we all had the same and if not similar experiences

I always find it so fascinating that we all had the same experiences, whether that's in school, our households, community, in our dialect, food, literally everything. How did Bahamian people manage to keep our culture spread over the entire Bahamas?

Imagine that 10 years ago, social media as we know it barely existed, so how were these trends passed down. How did we all somehow share the same school experience despite me going to school in Eleuthera and you in Nassau or Abaco or Freeport or Exuma?

How did all play pocking or where did the compass out the geometry set go missing for all of us? There are so many similar over lapping experiences. And I am thankful for each and every one of them.

Carry on our Bahamian Culture! Share our School Traditions! And EMPOWER BAHAMIAN CULTURE!

We hope you enjoyed this series!

With Love,

Kaché Knowles

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