School Resumption: What to Make of It

Having been frantically closed down for three months in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, schools are now permitted to reopen, albeit in a specified fashion. Nonetheless, this is still a huge relief to parents and without a doubt to the school administrators who have had to combat the economic fallout of the lockdown measure that was foisted on them, and save many private schools from bankruptcy. This is also a wonderful glimmer of hope for a number of teachers working in private schools who have had their salaries suspended, not out of spite from the schools but out of sheer financial unsustainability of the continual payments of salaries while students are not around.

According to the federal government, only the graduating classes such as primary 6, JSS3 and the SSS3 are permitted to go back to school in order to ensure that they do not get held back by this unfortunate event, and of course very little is being mentioned about the other classes and what might be done about that, perhaps that is because things can be a little more flexible with those and the decisions on what to do can be left to the individual schools to make without any serious consequences. 

Although there are serious concerns about this decision of the federal government, as regards just how safe things are expected to be with schools being basically reopened, especially with the understanding that most students do not care about the social distancing rule they are expected to follow while in school, combined with the fact that it will be almost ludicrous to expect primary 6 students to keep to mask wearing regulations while in school. All these are very worrying for parents of students who have to return to schools because of this change in policy. However, there is a bright side to this that should quell parents’ fears. For instance, multiple studies have shown all around the world, especially in Europe and in the United States that risks posed to young people, even up to the age of forty are essentially negligible and children are very unlikely to infect adults even if they contract the disease from their mates. In a Chinese study, not a single case was found in which a child infected his parents or other adults; instead, it was the other way round. Add to these the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics which is the association of doctors for children in the United States are now encouraging their government to reopen the schools, stating that there is not a justifiable concern for which the schools may be kept locked down.

While this is a big win in a certain way for the educational sector in the country, there remains some unanswered questions in matters concerning some of the students that will be resuming this July. The question of how the West African Secondary School Examinations will be carried out still lingers in some minds, since none of the other four nations that participate in this exercise – Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia have lifted restrictions on their secondary schools at the moment. This could mean that Nigeria alone will march ahead and embark on the exams alone, or in a way, the other nations may be pressured into following our lead in this grand step and finally help bring a closing chapter to the torturous academic year. 

6 Ways to Overcome the Fear of Dancing in Church

The fear of dancing in the presence of others, sometimes called chorophobia is something that most people find difficult to discuss and this makes it almost impossible to solve. This gets much more complex in the context of church services especially for devout Christians who have read about David praising the Lord with dancing and they really wish to emulate him, but just feel held back by this embarrassing and seemingly insurmountable problem. Well, here are the best and most practicable ways to pull yourself out and get you dancing without a care in the world.

1. Remember it’s not about you, it’s about God

One huge mistake you can make as someone who feels shy about dancing in the presence of other people, and in this case, in church programs is to focus too much on yourself, how you would look to others, how not to feel embarrassed and more, but the easiest way out is to change that mindset. Your dancing should be a way of praising God, just like king David did. David was not concerned about what his dancing moves would make him look like in the presence of others. So simply concentrate on the fact that you are in church to praise the creator and that takes the pressure off. As a somewhat shy dancer myself, a very empowering verse I have discovered and use regularly is Psalm 115:1 “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory…”

2. Don’t think about other people’s opinions

Another serious pitfall for people is that they focus way too much on the opinions of others. They think about who is looking at them and what they might think if their dance moves are lame. This fear of ridicule is so great that they simply prefer not to join the others in the praise session. Awfully enough, this decision only makes things much worse as their refusal to participate only makes them stand out as the odd ones in the congregation and they end up with the attention they so much strove to avoid. So the best thing to do is to simply disregard the opinions of others and just go for it.

3. Sit in the front pew

This is counterintuitive, but it does work excellently. Believe it or not, one of the reasons some people can’t get over their fear of dancing in the congregation is because they can see how wonderfully some other church members are dancing and this intimidates them and they simply give up on the whole thing. They are unconsciously comparing their own dance moves, which by the way they think isn’t all that great with the awesome dance moves of these other people and they simply think it’s not worth it at all. Since this is the root of their problem, the way out is to simply sit in front of other people and combine this step with steps 1 and 2 to get a perfect result. In doing this, they end up not caring about what people would say and they are focused on praising God and most importantly, they are not being intimidated by other people. This also has a secondary effect in that it starts to build their self-confidence and mitigate that fear of dancing really quickly, such that after practicing this step for a while, they can start sitting anywhere in the church and not care about someone else’s moves. It is all about practice.

4. Sing along and smile all through the praise session

Another interesting observation about people who are scared to dance in front of others is that they hardly sing along with the song being played or performed. They get so absorbed in trying to manage the embarrassment of being caught up in that uncomfortable situation and silently pray that the session ends quickly. In fact, the one thing you can do to get rid of this hopeless feeling is to simply join in. Sing along and smile all the way through. You might be surprised that you might start feeling excited about the song in just a short time and actually start enjoying it.

5. Don’t judge yourself

However the dance session turns out in your evaluation, don’t judge yourself. In all likelihood, you actually performed better than you feel. Do not dwell on it, simply prepare to do better next time, never forgetting to implement all the preceding steps. 

6. Learn new dance moves in your free time

Finally it is very important to learn new dance moves to supplement what you have at the moment. This is because whatever you will be doing out there or in the praise session will come mostly from the variations and combinations of moves you have learnt over the years. You don’t need to think about the context in which you might need them. Your body will surely bring out the best moves for the right occasion.