Momentum and strategery

Americans are always talking about momentum, and not just in school physics courses.   In sports, in politics, in business, and in various other things that are not strictly controlled by the laws of physics.  And in these arenas, we’re always making strategies and plans that somehow “capture momentum,” and lead to more rapid growth, improvement, or success than we believe was possible under a previous trajectory.  

There’s probably some truth to that, in that events, ideas, and changes so often pick up steam and take on a life of their own, but it is probably also a very culturally-specific concept of time and work.   Momentum makes us feel better about progress, and probably functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy much of the time.   And then the strategies that develop around the idea often become equated with laws of nature.  Businesses project their growth along exponential lines, politicians become obsessed with capturing it at certain points in the election cycle, and marketing types have their bylaws about the timing of events to maximize momentum, e.g. launch things on a Tuesday or Wednesday, but never on a Friday.  

I’ve brought some of that mindset here as a part of my cultural baggage, and I think it hasn’t been the best approach in an African context, whether because the tempo of life is different, I haven’t really learned how momentum works here yet, or because it’s not a strictly accurate understanding of the world.  Not sure which, exactly. Probably a little bit of everything

I’ve waited to start new lessons or concepts with my students until Mondays rather than Fridays, only to find a rainy Monday where they don’t come at all, and maybe the day after for illness, or any number of other reasons.  Life intervenes, and I end up finding that I’ve lost part, most, or all of a week, weeks I don’t really have to spare.  

And then I’ve had lessons where they’ve gulped down material in leaps and bounds, outpacing my lesson plans, happily staying past the time I had planned to end.  And on days like that, I’ve understood it as momentum and optimistically projected based on that single day how much I would be able to accomplish with them (maybe we’ll finish the P4 textbook before I leave?  Maybe even P5!)

Then malaria strikes or exams and public holidays come around, and again, another week, more or less lost.   Or sometimes we miss each other. . . I  wait from 4PM till after 5, go home and start chores, thinking they’ve forgotten, gotten tied up with household chores, or don’t want to risk getting caught in the rain. And then they show up to find an empty classroom 5-10 minutes later, which then, if I find this out, makes me feel like a fool.  And that definitely seems to tak on a negative momentum, making it less likely that we will find each other there the next day.  

Then another day of rapid progress, and the cycle begins again.   I’m don’t think this is a good life lesson, but I’ve learned to plan less. . . not look ahead and anticipate too much, not plan out lessons in bite-size chunks, but just chew through as much material as possible when we can actually sit down for a lesson.  I’ve tempered my expectations. However, I’ve had more trouble shaking the strategery (our former president has provided a good word for misguided strategies) mentality.  Even up to this last week, I have waited to pull a student from class till after the breakfast break thinking/strategizing they would need a few periods to get acclimated after a couple days of absence, only to get tied up with various other tasks, or found my student has gone home, still sick, and again missed opportunities.

But things even out, and with the shared goal guiding my students and I we’ve adapt and make the best of what we have.   The phonics approach we started with has allowed us to speed through the English textbooks, dozens of pages at a time, and by today, which is probably the last lesson I’ll be able to give, we’ve gotten through P2 and a good chunk of the P3 English books.  Maybe not as thoroughly as I have hoped we would on the best of days, but even in the absence of forward momentum or effective strategies, we have come quite a long way down the road together.

Storm's a coming. . .