List of Shame

As I've mentioned before, a major part of my job at the school this year is running the library.  Part of the work of the library this year is keeping the textbooks.  Since the students have lost/destroyed them so badly the last couple of years, we are trying keeping them all in the library to be checked out on an as-needed basis instead of issuing them all at the beginning of the year and leaving them to be buried at the bottoms of lockers. 

On Friday nights, before the Friday night movie is played, the students have to return all the books borrowed during the week.  They can take them again if they still need them, but at least this means that books have to be located and seen in person by me or one of the library workers at least every week or so.  While they are in the movie, I make a list of people who are still missing books, and they receive a punishment for not returning books on time.  If the book is still missing at the end of the term, a note is sent home to their parents that they need to pay a fine to replace the book.  It started out a bit of a joke calling my list the "List of Shame", but it's stuck now as the students both think it's funny and also try to avoid being on it because this is a culture where shame and honor are important. 

The first time, the punishment is having to get a dictionary and write out twenty adjectives that start with the letter of the week and their definitions (they might as well learn something while being punished!).  However, some students either don't do the punishment, or they are missing books multiple weeks in a row.  In those cases, I turn in their names to the Discipline Master, Mr. Mbesere, for grass slashing.  Here in Tanzania, almost no one has a mower, so grass is cut by going out with a dull machete (called a slasher by the students) and hacking at it.  This is not a popular job to have to do.  Since the Tanzanian school system is trying to cut back on corporal punishment, Mbesere has now decided that those in trouble should be given a particular plot of ground and a slasher to work off their punishment.  Writing those definitions in a timely manner looks much better now, doesn't it? 

Also, you can definitely tell this isn't the US--can you imagine in the US if you gave teenagers in trouble a weapon?