As a teacher, there is always a temptation to view a student as a future resource person. He/she may be a football star, a great musician, academician, doctor even a great fighter. This is because we are quite privileged to not only see these young impressionable human beings evolving from almost nothing to more important fellows charged with transforming society for the better. Last Sunday as I strolled through the school, I stopped to watch students playing a friendly football game. As I stood there, a younger boy called Willy approached me. After telling me how he had seen my photograph attached to stories I wrote in The New Times he boldly asked me what it took to become a writer like me. I was quite moved by his determination that I quickly lost focus of the game and starting reminiscing on how I started my writing career. I realised that by the time I was his age, I wanted to be an architect or a businessman and had not dreamt of being a writer at all. However I used to read a lot of written material ranging from newspapers at home and in the school library but more importantly, stories on the notice board that were written by fellow students. At a later stage I was privileged enough to join the students’ writers club in my school and I can never get tired of conceding that this was my gateway to the world of writing that seems to define me more than anything these days. I told the young man that more than anything; hard work will get him even past me. But I also pointed out that for him to become a great writer, he needed to first fall in love, not with writing but reading. I urged him to read almost everything he can lay his hands on including notices pasted on trees or notice boards. After establishing a craving for the written word, I advised him to make an effort to put words onto every event and situation. I assured him I too used almost a similar recipe to get to this level but that I had not stopped or rested on my laurels. It not a secret that schools are institutions meant to prepare good citizens to transform society for the better. The trouble is that instead of offering them an earlier chance to nurture some of the wonderful skills they are born with we wait for them to get to the university when it is a little too late. We know of 18 year olds playing football for the biggest football clubs in the world. Why then should one have to reach Butare journalism school before writing something for a reading audience? It is high time schools supported this idea of having writing and reading clubs in order to identify and help young writers to develop their language skills. These will most likely be the same people to have their by-lines appearing not just in The New Times but other regional and global publications in the near future. And of course it is no secret that the media in Rwanda has blood on its pages and microphones for the disgraceful role it played before and during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis. 15 years later even the president and almost everyone with access to a microphone, have all highlighted the lack of trained or even skilled media practitioners. On a lighter note, letter writing is one of the other ways students can polish their writing skills. The trouble however is that students these days, hardly receive any mail from their parents, some of whom even prefer to give them mobile phones even against school regulations. Exchange of letters among students of different school is also almost non-existent. In the final analysis, students are hardly getting the head start they need to be come future writers and this should worry all those concerned. ssenyonga@gmail.com
