The Photograph
The old alarm clock in the school hall which is the size of a basketball court had its second hand moving between 9 and 3 and it was stuck at 1:10, forever ringing the lunch bell. New students get distracted, but students who have stayed in the school for a long time know how to ignore the booming sound of the bell.


Fifty years ago, the news about the inaugural whole school photo day was up on the school noticeboard. The photo had a clock which looked the same but with the hands in different positions. It had way less people than the thousand it has today, but I have seen my class teacher in the photo. 


Just by reading the mouths and the posture of the people in the class, I could tell there were more naughty kids back then compared to now. The teacher called instructions like this, “Sit. Stop your conversations. Look at the camera. Get ready on 3. Otherwise, you are not in the photo. This is important.” Children tried to obey. The photographer said, ”3… 2… 1… Say CHEEESE!!!” A loud CHEESE sound echoed. “Try again. 3… 2… 1… Say GLUE!”, the photographer screamed from the megaphone. Students responded BLUE. Three people were quiet. “The third and final try in 3… 2… 1… Stand TALL and say CHEESE!!”, the photographer told the students from high above the stage. 


One year later, the three photos had been fully assessed and in the first and second photos people were scared of the camera’s flash, which was much brighter than today’s models. There were not enough people calling out the words in the first and second photos. The third photo could have been improved, but there were not enough ways that it could have been improved. So the third photo was the best after all because there was not enough time to create a fourth photograph.


 At the same time, the clock rang the recess bell. After that the recess bell rang three times and  the children that ran out of their classrooms went to play during eating time. During the time there were teachers taking photographs of people and what game they were playing. Handball was a new phenomenon and not a very common game. There was mainly basketball and soccer in the playground, as well as play equipment. During eating time it was only as chaotic as the main photo because the majority were eating in out of bounds areas. However as the second bell rang a few minutes later it was only more chaotic. People were only running or dawdling while having conversations on the way back to their classrooms.


This was just how an average recess break time was. The teachers had to address these issues but wanted to be less strict like they are today. New teachers came and went as It took forty-nine years to rethink the system. The bell was ringing 24/7 during the latter half of these years. This was an issue but it was not as important at the time. In the future, this next issue should just be resolved in days or weeks. It is just a clock problem. Just buy a clock and install it on the wall of the hall. Simple as that.