Observatory Junior School

~Alex Claus~ In our class prior to traveling to South Africa, we spent a lot of time learning about the education system, talking about the past, present, and future. It is a whole different experience from talking about it and reading about it to actually go into the schools and witness what the education system is really is like. Education is the key to success. It was intriguing to see this system in another country and discover what it is doing to help the children, who are the future of South Africa, succeed. By actually seeing some of the schools, we observed some improvements since the end of apartheid, but also we saw how much work still needs to be done. One of the public schools we visited was the Observatory Junior School in Cape Town. I want to share an excerpt from my journal on the day of that visit and what I observed:

Today we went to the public school just a few minutes from our house in Observatory. This is where a lot of children from the nearby townships go to school, including Thando (the son of the woman who cooked our meals for us). We were told there are only two white children that go to the school which is grades R-7th (R being kindergarten). I started off by sitting in and observing the literacy program they have at the school called Spire. Volunteers come in and work from 9 in the morning until about noon time and they have one-on-one sessions with kids that are struggling with English (speaking, writing, reading, spelling, etc.). I sat in with a woman and this young girl that was probably 6 or 7 years old. She started off the session playing a matching game where one person would flip over a card that would have part of a two syllable word on it (like rab) and then the other person would have to match it with the ending of that word (bit to make rabbit). Other words included football, handbag, etc. Then, after this game they did a few activities in a book that you could write in with a dry-erase marker. This young girl was practicing the long o sound in words like bow, boat, crow, cone, etc. The workbook would have blanks to fill in the correct letters with a picture of the word above it. So, bow would be b _ _ with a picture of a bow above it, boat would be b _ _ t and so on. With bow and boat the little girl spelt boat like bowt. She saw that the word bow was spelt that way and to her it made sense to just put the letter t on the end of that word to make boat. I thought this was very interesting and you could tell the child was comparing sounds and spelling of words she knew. This also helped me to realize how difficult the English language really is and how amazing it is that a lot of these children already know another language and are learning English as their second language. Its no wonder there are many children struggling, and thats why I also think its so great to have a program like this where a child can get some individual attention to work on their English. The volunteer and child ended the session by reading a couple short, easy books. After the girl left I had a little bit of time to talk with the volunteer. I asked her if she always had the same child and she said that she sometimes did but other times she would have a completely new child (this was the first time she had worked with the young girl). I also asked
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if she used to be a teacher or had any teaching background and she said that she hadnt. There was a day training course that she had to take in order to do this program, but besides that that was it. I thought that it was a great thing these women were doing to volunteer their time to help these children that are in need. That is also one thing I noticed about this school is that there were a lot of volunteers that would help out in different areas around the school; which is so great to see. From the literacy program I got to go in and observe a second grade class. As soon as I walked in I was shocked; there were so many children. I counted over 40 children in the classroom, and as soon as I walked in I felt overwhelmed. I dont know if it was because the kids were excited about having visitors or if this is how they usually acted, but the teacher could not get control over her students. She struggled getting them to follow directions, be quiet, sit down on the floor while she tried to teach; it was just a huge mess. I felt bad for the teacher, and being a future teacher I cannot even imagine having a class that size. With a class that size how can you even teach? How can you keep track to see if each child is progressing? Or how can you give individual attention to those that are struggling? How can you keep that many kids engaged and interested in learning? These are all question I had, and as I observed I found the answer to all of them; you simply cannot. This sets a lot of kids up for failure. The poor teacher can only do so much with over 40 children. Thats over 40 individuals with different strengths and weaknesses, different ways of learning, different interests, different personalities; it is so much to handle! I dont think the teacher knew how to reach to everyone, and I saw a lot of worksheets being done with coloring. There was little to no instruction, and I was even confused as to what they were supposed to be doing. They also switched teachers when I was there, which I thought was kind of strange. I wasnt sure if the other teacher only came in to teach a certain subject or activity, or if it was to give the teacher a break. The kids were working on worksheets on the different houses around the world. There would be a picture of a house on the sheet and the student would have to write what it was beneath the picture and then color it. There was no instruction or previous teaching (from what I could see) on what these houses were, and every time I would go to a different table to chat with the kids they would be asking me all sorts of questions. The houses included: igloo, wigwam, double-decker, shack, pagoda, tent, house on stilts. One of the kids I was talking with pointed to a double-decker house and said he wanted to have a house like that. Makes me feel like I like in a mansion, and how normal it seems to me to live in a double-decker house, whereas many of these kids only dream to live in a house like I do. The kids were VERY excited to have visitors and were full of questions and things they wanted to talk about. So many random kids ran up to me just to give me a big hug. At one point a table of about 6 kids wanted me to take my hair out of its ponytail, and when I did I had all of those at the table (and some from surrounding tables) wanting to touch my hair. They all were full of so many questions: Where are you from? Do you have any brothers? Do you have any sisters? Whats your dads name? Whats your moms name? Do you have a boyfriend? How old are you? What grade are you in? And so on and so onOne question that
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caught my attention was one kid asked if I voted and if I voted ANC or DA? I then had to explain that I couldnt vote because I dont live in South Africa. I thought it was interesting that of all the questions a second grader could ask me, he asked me this question, and a lot of his fellow classmates chimed in with the question too. So, here were seven and eight year old children already having some kind of knowledge in politics and obviously showing an interest or making them at least aware (either from posters or their parents, or however they got this knowledge). There was a little girl that I was talking to that told me her brother was dead. Catching me off guard, I didnt know why she was sharing this with me, a complete stranger. But, thats what I love about kids, they say whatever is on their minds and will usually not hold back. Talking with her a little further I asked how he died, and she said someone came in with a knife and stabbed him; he was only 18 years old. This really got to me. We had talked about and read about these kinds of things, but here was a young girl telling me her experience; she had to go through the death of her brother, the murdering of her brother. But, the way she told the story wasnt in a way of sorrow or pain which one would expect, but instead in an emotionless sort of way. Im sure she isnt the only child that has had such an experience and this just breaks my heart. These kids are so full of love and are so welcoming, they have touched me so much and have stolen a huge piece of my heart. I want the best for them so badly, but unfortunately the black education system (or public education system) still needs a lot of work to help provide a better future for these kids. After the second grade classroom I got to go in and observe a seventh grade social studies class. The lesson was on Human Resources and about work and making money. What a difference between this class and the 2nd graders. These kids were so well behaved, seemed to be engaged in the lesson, and the teacher (Mr. Miller) was so good in keeping the students interested. He would joke with them, but you could see there was discipline there too, and he would ask questions for the students to answer. From what I could see he was an excellent teacher and the students seemed to definitely appreciate and respect him which I did not see in the other class.

Photo Credits: Nancy Lory, Whitney Cyr, and Danielle Ireland Music in photo slideshow: Storms in Africa by Enya and Shambala by Three Dog Night