In praise of the humble blackboard

Do you know why I like my autodidact and university English classes so much? It’s because we meet in purpose-built classrooms which are light and airy and have beautiful lengths of blackboard along one whole wall. The boards have smooth surfaces which don’t undulate, and the chalk fairly speeds across them creating fine, even chalk marks that are highly visible.

My board work in these classes is a work of art. I’m very proud of the lay-out of teaching points and stick figures and vocabulary lists. It’s textbook perfect. My handwriting is grade-school printing: clean, clear and visible with no confusion between ‘a’ and ‘e’ and ‘i’. Perfect for the student of a foreign language.

Alas, that I only have two lessons a week working on such boards. The blackboard at ISP is cramped and squat - attached as it is to the wall of revamped living room of a house. The surface is uneven in paint application so when I hit a spot where the chalk won’t write it squeals my nails or breaks them. Miles of words pressed with force to make them visible leave me with a painful right shoulder. I’m sure Health and Safety Regulations would consign the board to the skip.

But that’s nothing compared to what is found in the local secondary schools. Many boards are easel affairs which wobble with the slightest touch. They’re tucked into dark corners and I have to remind the students on teaching practice that they have the right to move them to a more central position.

I dispute with the students about the best place to start their blackboard presentation. Many start in the middle of the board as instructed in some ‘Medes and Persians’ methodology manual. So in order to finish recording all the exercise for copy they have to restart in the left hand corner - an unnatural pattern that leads to pupils forgetting to go back to the beginning of the board for the end of the copy. I won my point with one student – but only because the central section was pock-marked by bullets and, therefore, unusable! (The cement dais underneath the blackboard was equally pock-marked and just waiting to cause a broken ankle for the unsuspecting teacher.)

A constant cry from the ‘stagiaires’ is what to do when they walk into a classroom to teach their lesson and find the blackboard full of notes left by the previous teacher. If they start to clean the blackboard in an attempt to claim their 50 minutes of teaching time, the cries of ‘No, teacher!’ (at least they’re in English!) create a hostile start to the lesson. “Now, you see why I post notices at ISP with ‘The person who writes on the blackboard is the person who cleans it.’ SYMBOL 74 \f "Wingdings" \s 10

My highest commendation on a teaching practice supervision form? ‘Well done; you remembered to clean the blackboard.’

Ah, the humble blackboard. So vital for teaching here, but a cause of so many disputes and misunderstandings.

“Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.” Habakkuk 2:2

Blessings,

Bridget