Days 11-13: The Roses That Grow From Concrete
Days 11-13: Kalksteenfontein Primary
School
From Tuesday to Wednesday, we had the opportunity to both observe and teach in the Kalksteenfontein Primary School. Although it was not my grade level, I had the best experience at this school. Upon our arrival to Cape Town, we were greeted by the principal who was willing to come out of him home at 8 o'clock at night to go through our expectations as well as brief us as to the politics and school environment that we would be stepping into. The fact that he was willing to do this before we even got to the school gave me a strong sense of respect for him as the leader of the school (as this trait is often lacking among urban leadership).
As each day began, we would meet as a group in the staff meeting room with Principal ____ and he would allow us time to ask him questions pertaining to how the day was going to go or any general questions that we had. When it came time to go to the classrooms, he personally walked us to the room as well as came and checked on us periodically. Even at break time, he was a strong presence in the corridors.
When we first arrived in the classes, we were told to just observe and try not to allow the children to distract us or themselves from their lessons and what was going on in the classrooms. Raafi and I were the two visiting teachers in the classroom. This is important because as I was observing the students, I noticed that there was one boy that was beat-boxing as he was doing his work. When it came time for our first break, I relayed this information to Raafi who was sitting a few rows behind me. As soon as I did that he called the student over and they began to make beautiful music together...that continued for the next few days.As the boys were huddled around Raafi and enjoying the beats, the girls huddled around me and asked me a million and one questions inbetwixt playing with my hair, re-teaching me lanyard patterns, and convincing me to sing for them as to not be out done by what was going on just a few feet away. As I tried to find anyway possible to not to sing, I thought was saved by the formal break that comes after lunch. I was sadly mistaken as the learners got both Raafi and myself outside I got us to both sing for them. After that , the beat-boxing and Afrikaans rap lyrics returned and we some how ended up all dancing. It was at this moment that while in mid dance move one of the learners turned to me said something quickly laughed and danced off. It didn't occur to me that she had just told me "You dance like a nigga" until after the break was over and I was sitting in the classroom contemplating it.
I would definatly say, this is the only part of the visit to Kalksteenfontein that I regret...not hearing her in time to educate her that that is not a word she should be using...particularly in the 4th grade.
After our first day of observations, we were allowed to teach an English (language) lesson and a lesson about America. We decided that since the students already had "Bieber Fever" we would use the lyrics to one of his songs to promote reading comprehension. Our second lesson was all about map skills, time zones, and letter writing in english. Though after the first day of teaching I felt it was actually my first day of teaching, it wasn't bad (I still prefer high school though, sorry).
Personally...
What I really got out of this experience is the understanding of being "coloured" in South Africa. When I was sitting in the classroom on that first day, the one thought that kept repeating itself was, "If I was born here, I would have probably gone to a school like this". Through no fault of their own, but sheerly due to the residual politics of Apartheid, this school and community is severely under resourced, and run rampant of poverty, gang activity, drugs, violence, etc. Though the school has superior leadership, the principal has very little outside support. It is amazing to see how so much yet so little has changed since 1994.
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