So I’ve now been teaching in South Africa for nearly a week, and already I seem to have fallen into a routine that invariably occurs every day... a rather uninspiring tale of waking up, going to school, coming home, eating dinner, planning lessons for the following day, and falling asleep. Not unlike my PGCE year... the only real difference being the environment and the people.
What follows is a little insight into what it is like teaching far outside your comfort zone, the highs and the lows, the clouds and the silver lining...
Monday wasn’t half as daunting as I expected it to be... though this was largely down to the BBC film-crew who were following us (us being a group of 10 student teachers, based in 5 different schools around the Alexandra Township), who insisted on filming us all getting off the minibus at our schools for the first day, and insisting it was done as naturally as possible (as natural as multiple takes with carefully scripted dialogue can be...). I’ve no idea if my scene will make the final edit... I don’t think it likely. I was on the minibus for 4 hours before arriving at my school (it is normally a 30 minute commute), such was the faff of the filming! So my first day at school involved only 90 minutes of a school day... I really didn’t get to do anything.
My first impressions; the pupil’s are friendly enough outside the classroom, though very difficult to get engaged within the classroom. The school building itself could have been taken straight from an American prison drama, 2 intimidating blocks in various states of disrepair, with several dirty courtyards that serve as recreational areas, the whole complex bordered by a steel fence capped with barbed wire (photographs to follow when I get the chance to take them...). Within the classrooms, teachers occasionally have control, outside the classroom, the pupils rule the school.
Tuesday was the first day of actual teaching; unexpectedly dropped on me when the teacher I was shadowing decided he wanted to have the afternoon off... it didn’t go too badly. Not for an unplanned first lesson in a foreign country to pupils lacking in the basic standards of living. It may not have passed an Ofsted inspection, but I did my best. Many (but not all) of the pupil’s are still very wary of me within the classroom.
Wednesday was a full on day of teaching, 8 lessons (45 minutes each), ALL year 11, which was essentially the same lesson repeated ad nauseam. Makes my planning easier, makes me feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day... that old chestnut “no two lessons are ever the same” is really pushed to its limits.
Thursday... . Today I witnessed what it was really like teaching in a South African township. During one of my many Year 11 lessons my brilliant exposition of a ‘Box and Whisker diagram’ was abruptly interrupted by an unknown pupil running into my classroom, slamming another pupil into the corner of the room which was shortly followed by a blinding flurry of fists and elbows. To be honest it took me a couple of seconds to register just what was going on, I then put on my scariest teacher voice shouting the words “what are you doing! Get the hell off of him...!” or something as equally feeble. Unsurprisingly that had no effect. I was stopped from intervening by other pupils in the class (just as well, I would have probably got smacked...he was pretty big!) and luckily the aggressor was torn off the other boy by either his friends or other pupils in the class... and within 20 seconds it was over with. Though I’m not convinced it will be the end of that particular dispute... All I could do was report the incident to another teacher, but nothing will come of that.
It’s a different world out here. Some of these young men grow up on the streets learning to resolve their issues with the fists, it is a world I will never understand, it is a world in which I really cannot judge. I don’t experience the hardships these youngsters face, who am I to say what is right or wrong? All I can do is offer guidance, though for many of them, the only way to escape this life is through education. This is the only area where I can help them.
Has my first week been what I expected? Yes and no. The poverty in the area was not as shocking for me as I had been told to expect, though my travels exposed me to conditions like this long ago. It is the stories of young adults whose parents were lost to aids long ago, who are burdened with raising their younger siblings, providing for them whilst also trying to provide themselves with an education. Knowing that a meagre meal at school may be all these youngsters eat in a day, god only knows what they eat at the weekend. Many of them probably don’t. These are problems I could never imagine facing, yet they face them every day.
Their resilience to even come to school and try and make the best of a bad situation is of great credit, and I would welcome such dedication and ethic in my pupils back home! These young people want to be taught, they just need a good teacher who really wants to teach them. I’m trying.
Well, on a lighter note; one more day until the weekend...I look forward to it.
Jx
Ps, I now have a South African phone number (inc dialling code): 0027828308907 – my UK phone has not worked since I left Heathrow, so if you have previously text me I will not have received it...
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