High School

i loved high school.. it was tough, and yet fun. high school in Kenya was four years, grade/class nine till twelve.. known as Form One to Form Four. at Strathmore we had a pretty small boys-only student body (80 per batch, divided into two streams), but we had very high standards, and worked very hard to maintain the top three in the country status. the school was run by the Opus Dei (Latin for 'Work of God'), which is a prelate of the Catholic Church. The teachings of the Opus Dei embody the sanctity of work, and is for the lay people. being a small science-focussed school, there was not much choice of electives at the eight subject, board exam level, with Engineering Drawing or Commerce being the only choice.

we had some of the most amazing teachers there.. most of them being ex-Strath boys who simply refused to leave! the Physics prof was a passionate Spaniard who could cuss the color off a sailor.. the Chemistry teacher was an absent-minded Aussie who we nicknamed Doc for his penchant of mumbling under his breath and blowing things up with disdain in the labs. the Drawing teacher was a Southern Italian who regaled us with stories of the Mafia while he puffed his pipe and walked up and down the class as we drew. we had another teacher who was also Italian, and the wisest, most disciplined man i have ever come across. i think there was no question he had no answer for, and you can bet teenagers can come up with a helluva lot of questions! the Swahili teacher was a wizened old man who was five foot nothing, and with immaculate precision and punctuation scared the wits out of every one of us. the Geography teacher was also a national level rugby player, and we loathed him so much that we all did excellently at the nationals in geography, it was difficult to get his nagging voice out of your head while writing the exam! then the Biology teacher was this quiet bloke who we made so much fun of, that it was not even funny! some of the pranks we pulled on him were legendary, but that is all fodder for another post.

the day would be pretty hectic for me.. i could be found running up the street to catch Bus A every morning at 6.42 a.m., i was never a morning person. school bell rang at 7.50, and first class was at 8.05. two classes then break for 15 min at 9.45. 10.00 to 11.40 were two more classes, then there was a 40 min class where you could either go for Mass at the school Chapel, or else have a study lesson. following that was another class till 1.10, which was the most agonising class ever. the class before lunch always was. lunch was in the Dining Hall, where the food was above average for school messes. you were expected to learn and use table etiquette, including forks and knives, which was quite an achievment for the teachers cos we were a bunch of unruly teens! after lunch would be three more lessons until 4.30, with wednesday and friday afternoons being sports classes. after which i would hang around and play soccer, catching the 6.05 bus to be home at 7.

looking back at that period, i don't think there was ever a time i worked that hard. there were no free periods in school, so homework was done at home, and often i was up till 1-2 studying cos the system at Strath was pretty tough. we had 3 school terms, with an exam every halfterm (called CATs), and all six counting towards your final grade. you were ranked in four quarters (20 students each), and had to fight tooth and nail to retain your position in the first quarter in each subject. one bad CAT would send you plummeting.. i remember once in CAT II i had 85% in geography and was in 1st-Qtr., and when i got 80% in CAT III i fell to 3rd-Qtr. you had to bring your A-game to school, every single day. even at sport, everyone was a competitor, and you could go from regular starter to fringe player with two consecutive offdays.

all in all it was a good time, and even though i am hardly in touch with anyone from that era, i know everywhere the boys of Strath are, they are doing the school proud..

all hail the power of Strathmore School,
let all teams fall before us, let all teams fear..