12. Formal Education of Our Children: East Africa a New Life Adventure

Meanwhile our own children needed to continue their education.  We had come prepared for this with curriculum lessons from the State of Nebraska to cover subject areas in a HomeSchool setting for each child. Barbara was the HeadMaster, teacher, Disciplinarian for the three children at home old enough to be in school.  

The oldest, Diane, was Highschool freshman status, so we made arrangements to send her to the Kenya Girls School in Nairobi.  The job of Homeschooling, Barbara found to be a challenge, and she was never satisfied with the job she had done. Diane found the experience at Kenya Girls School less than satisfactory.  The way in which subject matter was taught was incompatible with the American System of Education.  Where In the United States, a subject like Chemistry is taught for one year; In Kenya with the British system, the subject is taught for four years. Thus it took four years to cover the same material in the British system that was covered in one year in the United States.

Hierarchy began to manifest itself at Kenya Girls’ school. Diane found herself in detention. Once her infraction was pulling up the sleeves of her school uniform. Another infraction was correcting an instructor about the condition of the timber industry in Canada, which was far from being stunted and unusable as the instructor had indicated. The school didn't appreciate students who ask questions and voiced their own thoughts. 

Barbara and I decided that it was time to find an American Dependents School. We found one in Madrid, Spain, so we made arrangements for Diane and Vicki to enroll.  Besides the difficulties Diane had at Kenya Girls School, Vicki, our second daughter, had no companions other than her parents and younger siblings, so Madrid was an answer to two problems. Diane’s withdrawal from Kenya Girl’s School was not without its own problems.  It was uncommon, to say the least, for a student to withdraw, let alone doing so with the indication that the quality of education was of concern.  The piano teacher was beside herself, because she was not going to get paid for the remainder of the lessons that she had scheduled but was not going to teach.  We were fed-up with the British system of authoritarian dominance and proceeded to do our “own” thing.  

To my recollection this had to be late August of 1968 and we put both girls on BOAC flight to Madrid. Both girls had been responsible individuals, and we had a lot of faith in their ability to handle any situation. We were not going to be on hand to bail them out, and of course they were well aware of this.  Within maybe a week  Barbara and I had not heard from them, so we sent a telegram to the School to confirm their arrival.  They were called to the Principal's Office to find out why they had not let their parents know when they arrived. A new episode in their lives got under way.