Kids With Knives


This week, the reason I am happy to be returning to Uganda is that kids bringing knives to school is a good thing. When the children would bring knives to school in my village, it meant that there was going to be a special celebration that included food, and there was a pile of matooke (green bananas) that needed to be peeled.

I remember seeing my neighbor's three year old son running around their yard with a big knive the first week I moved to Bulindi. I was concerned, so I walked over and took the knive from him and found his mother to return the knive and let her know that her little boy had found it and was playing with it. She looked a bit confused. I walked back over to my house, and I watch her give the knife back to him. I had a lot to learn.

For a Ugandan child, learning to use a knife is a life skill that is acquired at a very young age. Many of the foods that they eat must be peeled: matooke, sweet potatoes, cassava, Irish potatoes, yams. Young people are the ones who often are responsible for food preparation, so the children are helping out in the kitchen when they are old enough to find their way there on their own. Children with knives is a good thing. They are learning skills necessary for their well being and survival.

The peeling is usually left up to the girl children. Boys usually take care of slaughtering the animals when there is meat available. Where I lived, there were several Muslim families who sent their children to the school where I worked. Muslims don't eat meat from animals that were not slaughtered by Muslims. None of the teachers where I worked were Muslims, so when there was meat to be cooked at the school, one of the Muslim boys would be pulled out of class to do the deed.

Kids were very skilled with blades in Uganda. No one used scissors. They used razor blades when cutting papers. Parents saw nothing unusual when you instruct the kids, "We're going to the swamp tomorrow to collect reeds. Everyone bring a machete to school." The next morning, every child came to school toting his or her panga. I'd lose my job if I tried that now. My students recently complained because I made them carve potato stamps using spoons. "Mr. Hatcher, why can't we use knives?" Because your parents would have fit.

I think that it is unhealthy that kids in America are so overprotected, and it is unfortunate that teachers have to protect themselves from lawsuits, so we are not always able to use the most efficient or convenient tools. Let's be safe.