If you walked into Frances McDuffie's British literature classroom at Laurinburg Institute Tuesday, expecting to see the instructor at work, you might have done a double take; although the class was taking notes and calling Ms. McDuffie by name, the woman you thought you knew appeared to have been transformed into a young man.

"This has been an ongoing tradition at our school," the real McDuffie said, laughing as she stood with the handful of students who traded places with instructors and faculty for the one day annual event. "We do it for fun, obviously, but we also hold this exercise in order to give the students a feel for what it's like to be in our shoes for a day. Hopefully they will learn something from it as a result."

Students were chosen by administrators or were elected by fellow students to fill the positions of faculty and staff members: school headmaster Frank McDuffie gained a double in student Deshawn Samuel of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands; school Principal Cynthia McDuffie was replaced by junior Jaliyl Abraham; and Frances McDuffie's substitute was William Yengue, a senior from Cameroon.

Yengue appeared to have enjoyed his brief role as an instructor.

"Some of the kids were acting up, so I had to punish them," Yengue said with tongue firmly in cheek.

For student Jaliyl Abraham of Washington, D.C., his responsibilities for the day appeared to be more taxing than enjoyable.

"I assumed many of the duties of Mrs. Cynthia McDuffie, our principal," he said. "I have been doing all kinds of office work, which included making copies. It has been a blur."

Other students who became instructors included Tasim Lashley of St. Thomas, Kalil Stuart of Durham, Aaron Walters of Florida, Manyok Gatlwak of Australia, and fellow Australian Karor Gumwel.

"We obviously don't leave them alone in the classroom," McDuffie said, laughing at the idea. "That situation would tend to deteriorate pretty fast. We stay there with them, and give them something light to go over with the class. We discuss the lesson plan with them the day before, and they will hopefully gain an appreciation for what it's like being a teacher."

Laurinburg Institute was begun in 1904 by Emmanuel Monty and Tiny McDuffie for the education of black children. Today, the school is a private, non-sectarian preparatory school with residential capacity for 135 students in grades 9 through 12. Students come from many areas of the United States and from overseas to attend.

The McDuffie family has led the school for three generations.