Life & Work

To dreadlock or not is the question here...

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Mrs Patricia Kariuki, head teacher, Rusinga Schools in Nairobi. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU

Patricia’s whole career has been about either studying or teaching languages. English to be specific.

Her CV is the colour of education: Head of English and Literature and later head of department at Loreto Convent Msongari (early 1990s); The Aga Khan Academy - head of languages (mid 90s); Rusinga School; starting as teacher of English and languages, head of department of languages right up to head teacher.

Recently, Rusinga School made news when a parent took the school to court to protest its policy of not allowing students to wear dreadlocks. The courts ruled in favour of the school. We met in her office, which had numerous trophies and certificates.

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What do you love and hate the most about your job?

What I love the most is engaging these kids about their dreams and their future. You see those two doors? This one here is for visitors allowed in by my PA.

That second door is for students, they don’t have to go through my PA, they just walk in. The only reason I come to this school is the children, no adult brings me here. The part I hate the most is dealing with budgeting, financing.

Do you have kids?

Biological? No. When my husband and I – after long thought - decided not to adopt. We said if God doesn’t give us we aren’t going to look for it. We won’t question him, but of course I asked why me?

Let me guess, you met in church?

Actually we did. Anyway, as we matured, we stopped asking question and begun to see the reason. I suspect I wouldn’t have been the kind of teacher I am if I had kids of my own. My husband (he lectures in psychology at Kenyatta University) and I are very introspective.

Sometimes we look at how kids are nowadays and we say thank God, because some parents come here crying about their kids who have gone off the rails and they ask where they went wrong yet they have provided the children with everything.

What are the reasons that made you not consider adoption?

We did consider it seriously. For two years we went searching for a child to adopt and then we got to a point where we thought that maybe adoption wasn’t the best way forward.

I mean some of our close friends adopted and there might be regrets when you don’t know what genes you are carrying. If you adopt and the child manifests things that are alien it’s easy for the parent to blame it on the child.

What is your biggest limitation as a head teacher?

That’s a very hard question. (Very long pause). That’s a hard one.

How do you unwind?

I swim, sometimes, or do the treadmill. I travel a lot. I hate the journey to a place but I love the destination. I love overseas travel, mostly. I love being out there .....the anonymity. In the US, for instance, I will go in summer and wear shorts. Here you won’t find me in shorts.

Why won’t you wear shorts here?

Cultural issues. Out there I’m completely free. The anonymity is very good. I also love reading motivational literature…The Chicken Soup series, Joel Osteen…not motivation new age, but motivational spiritual content.

When are you least motivated?

When I do something and it doesn’t seem to bear fruit. When I speak to a child doing drugs and I ask why? When I speak to a teacher who isn’t seeing the same vision as I am. When I try to put family members together because they are not talking and they think my ideals aren’t relevant to their problems.

How old are you?

I just turned 50 not too long ago.

What do you enjoy most about being 50?

(Excited) I feel so stable, so confident; that God has been so good to me. I feel like the world is still waiting for me to do my things. I love being 50! I don’t care what you think, Jackson. (Laughs). But still I wouldn’t mind if you took my advice, but if you didn’t, I wouldn’t care too much.

What do you know now at 50 that you wish you had known a long time ago?

Not to hesitate as soon as you see an opportunity. I would say I can’t account for my 20s. Doors started opening for me after 30. I should have started opening those doors early.

I love how these children are opening doors now; we have empowered them to think early for themselves. They aren’t as boxed in as we were.

What has been your greatest regret?

You know, I’m living my dream. I have always wanted to be a teacher. I met a man, it took a while for him to break me down. I was kali, been married for over 25 years. (Smiles). I love marriage.

My greatest regret is losing my mom when I did. She should have been given more years so that she could enjoy us, she raised us singlehandedly. Dad was an alcoholic but that created strength in us somehow. My husband’s mom was also an alcoholic, died from kidney-related complications…

Does your husband drink?

He used to. (Pause). But he stopped.

Did you make him stop?

(Smiles) I sort of gave him the dividing line. I told him if you go past that line then I won’t cross it with you. He and I have given each other freedom but that is the one line I asked him not to cross, I mean given our backgrounds with alcohol.

Do you think your marriage would be this way if you had kids?

You know what, to be honest, it would have shaken us. Now we have each other. We share a deeper friendship.

Is there a level of selfishness there?

Yes, major! And we are not embarrassed to say it. (Laughs). And we have been told the same.

What do you think people think of you the first time they see your hair, the dreadlocks?

They think I’m a radical, brave. These dreadlocks make me free. I have stayed a whole month without going to the salon, its natural. Yet I still have a woman’s glory.

Do you think your hair gets in the way you run your home or this school?

Absolutely not.

Which brings us to the elephant in this room; why didn’t you guys just let that boy sport his dreadlocks in peace then?

There is what is called uniformity. There is a way we want our boys to look. Short hair, neat. We want to put them in the real corporate world, dreadlocks don’t fit. We are saying after 18 years, you can do whatever you want, but as long as you are here, we have rules to adhere to.

Here you are teaching these kids to be individuals, to be confident, but then you also say you want uniformity, is it not a contradiction? Because doesn’t uniformity hinder individuality? Like a conveyor belt kind of industrial production that churns out the same kind of kid…

When you talk of an institution, there is a certain level of value system or ethos that we stand for. There is a certain level of grooming that we laud. We are careful not to disrespect this institutional ethos, and you, a student, being part of this image must fit in.

But you realise how you look dictates how you feel about yourself?

Children should be taught that you can’t have everything you want and we, as teachers, should impress upon this without crushing a child’s spirit or personality. What we are saying is that you can’t go out there and express yourself on a level where you are breaking certain social codes that organisations have set.

Freedom has limits, it shouldn’t interfere with the freedoms of others. The minute we allow dreadlocks, next we will get all sorts of hairstyles coming up. And you know some parents bring their children to this school because of these very values that we stand for.

What has been your greatest education?

Losing my mom. That just put my life in a different gear.

If you had a child, what school would you take them to, apart from Rusinga?

St Andrew’s Turi. They have the same values like we do.