A Day in St. Andrew's (Malawi)
25 years ago I took a camera to school and videotaped all my classes—I was in Form 5, and it was a few weeks before my GCSE exams. Many of my classmates would leave after the exams…and what better way to preserve the precious memories than filming a typical day in school!
These are videos of real classes in session. Not one teacher said I couldn’t record and that’s very telling about the relationship we shared with our teachers.
English Class with Mrs. Dudley
Ok, let’s start with my English class. This one is hilarious--people arriving late to class, and Mrs. Dudley remarking, "this will be just typical for your video, Swami, you'll remember this when you're 40!"
Mrs. Dudley has been a huge influence on me, and not just in English. She wanted us to be good people—even small things like picking up trash on your way. You’d always see her pick up trash. She’d say, “it doesn’t matter if you didn’t put the trash there. Pick it up anyway. It’s your school.” These days when I see trash, Mrs. Dudley comes to mind, and I’d feel guilty not picking it up. The power of leading by example…
Morning Registration (Chiradzulu) with Mrs. Hackney
Let’s rewind a bit. This is our registration session first thing in the morning, where we’d meet up with others in Chiradzulu before classes begin. The school (as is typical in other schools) was split into four houses, mostly for competitive activities: Chiradzulu, Michiru, Ndirande, and Soche, named after mountains in Malawi.
Chemistry with Mr. Studd
Chemistry was very difficult. If not for Mr. Studd’s inspirational style of teaching, it would have been very difficult to get through. He employed a lot of active learning techniques, got his students engaged very quickly, and the lecture came only at the end. You can see how he starts us out with experiments, and then there is the lesson at the end. He gets a little annoyed at me with the camera...just a bit!
Peter, who was multi-talented, and a best friend to many of us, is in this video as well. He enjoyed using the camera and was excellent at giving narrations, as you will see in some of the later videos. He left us too soon.
Another video with Mr. Studd. This was in 6th form (A levels):
Mr. Studd: Don't you hate people with video cameras!
Biology with Mrs. Wallace
French Class with Mr. Claskens
French to Maths
Peter narrating his way from French class to Maths class. It was a long walk! There’s really not much happening in this video and the quality suffers a bit, but keeping this because Peter’s narration is funny :)
Maths Class with Dr. Dudley
Dr. Dudley was a fun Maths teacher. Very laid back. Made us do lots of interesting practical projects. He's actually an entomologist (studied all kinds of insects around Malawi) and Maths was just his passion. The Dudleys were the only Americans in the British school, and both were instrumental in getting me acquainted with American culture and values before I came to the US for college.
CDT (Creative Design & Technology) with Mr. Green
Much of what I do today with photography started in this room. Mr. Green not only made us do a lot of physical projects (woodwork, electric arc welding, building models of bridges, computer desks, etc) but also taught us how to represent three-dimensional objects on paper. This is the challenge we face in photography. A photo is a two-dimensional representation of a 3D world, and much is lost when translating from 3D to 2D. The key to taking great photos is knowing how to represent the third dimension on paper. Mr. Green taught us to see where the light is coming from in a scene, and appropriately emphasizing the light and shadow sides of an object, and that’s most of what I deal with in photography.
Showing off the computer desk I made for my final year project.
Swimming Gala (1995)
Swimming was by far the most important sport in school. We had a Swimming Gala every year—a school-wide competition. No classes or anything that day, just swimming, diving, and cheering. I was the worst swimmer in school (so you won’t find me in this video!). During my childhood in India, my friend almost died in the ocean after a surprise wave pulled him in, and the trauma of seeing him drift almost 1km into the ocean has prevented me from getting good at swimming.
6th Form Play
It was a school tradition for 6th formers to do a little play before leaving school. That year the theme was, "What will you be in 10 years' time?" I was Rambo, and clearly, I got it wrong.
Physics Class with Mr. Wallace
This is Form 5 physics class where Mr. Wallace smokes for real to show us how a smoke detector works. He was a very effective teacher and had a great sense of humour. You can hear him say: “This is the only time of year I smoke!” One of the funniest moments is when he grabs the camera and records the class himself :)
It’s a bit of a long video—if you’re not into Physics, it might be a bit boring, but I left it unedited because it’s precious footage for some of us. The smoking is after the 15:00 mark.
Economics with Mr. Morgan
Mr. Johnston Harris with 6th Formers
Mr. Johnston Harris, my pure maths teacher (also the school’s deputy headmaster), visits the 6th formers' study room for a little chit-chat, and to say bye to us, as it's our last week in school. He was an amazing pure maths teacher. Very methodical. Very thorough. His favorite word was QED: Quite Easily Done.
For All the Saints (School Hymn)
This song brings back a lot of memories. This was our school hymn which we would sing at least twice every term. Also, every teacher who was teaching in 1997 can be seen in this video, sitting along the perimeter of the hall.
Assembly - New Prefects Announced
If you were a prefect during 1997-1999, you are in this video :)
BEIT Library
Just a little tour inside our library. I spent a lot of time studying here.
Mufty Day
This was the day when we didn’t have to wear uniform to school. This video was mostly taken by my friends Suhrid and Vijay, and most of the footage is of their classes: Mr. Hackney's Maths class and Mrs. Horrocks's English class.
Hope these videos took you back a few years :) I still have a few more to convert. Will add them here when they are ready.