High schoolers in South Africa

Doris and I took the morning off today to visit a high school on the outskirts of Jo'Burg.
Patrick once taught there and we were able to get a full tour. We went around with the Deputy Principal. At first glance the school reminded me of where I went for grade school. It consisted of several one story buildings with rows of class rooms. The class rooms themselves had black boards all along the walls and rows of desks in the center. In South Africa they call there students Learners. I thought that was kind of nice...

Exams were taking place this week. Usually the and the learners wear uniforms but today they were allowed to dress down for a small fee. Our first stop was a tenth grade class room. They were preparing to take a biology exam. The class room was sparsely populated kids were sitting towards the back and corners of the room, leaving a big space of empty desks in the center and front o the room. They were very typical tenth graders, a bit "too cool for school." They were telling me about how they were in a gang called the Afghans and they were throwing gang signs. I don't know how serious this was, they seemed like nice kids who were playing and showing off.


Tenth Graders

Next stop was an 8th grade class room where they were preparing for their test in Africaans. This class room was filled. Nearly every desk. One little girl was sitting at the teachers desk at the back of the room. They tried to teach us a bit of it but we were hopeless so I taught them a little spanish Hola, and como esta (that is reaching the limit of what I knew so we quickly changed the subject). Doris asked if they had any questions about the states, and boy did they ever. (especially the little girl sitting at the teachers desk.)


Eighth Graders

They asked about the cost of living (how much does a loaf of bread cost in the US? a gallon of milk?). We would answer and do the conversion and they would all gasp. They asked about pop stars, I was laughed at because I didn't know who Chris Brown was... still don't. We were asked about racism in America, this topic keeps coming up, no one is afraid to confront it. It's kind of refreshing! One girl asked about clever people: "is it true that if you become too clever you go mad?"

I was kind of shocked by this question "Like an evil genius?" I replied. She nodded.
I explained that I was pretty sure evil geniuses started out mad and that growing more clever only made them dangerous. I also tried to tell her that she shouldn't be afraid of growing more clever. Otherwise who would counter the evil geniuses?

Then she asked if there were a lot of clever people in America. I immediately answered "yes" than I thought for a second and added: "America has clever people because we have a government that lets clever people be clever, it's called a democracy and it is the same government that you have." I told her how lucky we were to be in a place that let clever people be clever.

Than the Deputy Principal asked Doris and I to say a few words about drug abuse and unprotected sex. I felt a bit like smoky the bear but we managed. "Only you can prevent teen aged pregnancy and AIDS."

We left the 8th graders to their exam and they said goodbye in Africaans which I tried to parrot back but totally mangled. We walked with the Deputy Prinsipal around the property and pause beside a burnt out hulk of a building. It was the same as the other buildings but the roof had fallen in because of a fire.

The burnt section is just beyond that wall


Interestingly, this was a class room Patrick taught in. Now it is a wasted mess

The fire was started by angry locals, we didn't get a clear story. I have a feeling that there isn't really a clear story to get. The DP started talking about the woes of the South African school system. Like the U.S. the public school system here is underfunded; however South Africa is a level below even the worst schools in the US. There is no funding for music, art, or Physical Education programs. South Africa has a 16% rate of Grade 12 passes with endorsement. The US graduates 76% of it's hig school students. He looked at the burnt building and put his hand on the wall, "the walls are strong, we just needs a bit of money for a roof, than we could open these classrooms up again."


We left, Patrick, ever optamistic, ever possitive talked about how he taught: "When I taught here we didn't have any money either" During the Apartheid an average of 5R was spent per colored student, that compairs to 1R per black and 85R for white. "but you don't need money to teach children, you just need to have energy and be creative." As a testament to Patrick's success he sent 6 children to college from his class, impressive considering a 16% matriculation rate.

It's also worth noting that Patrick stopped teaching decades ago. It is hard to stay creative and energetic in a stifling environment.


Notice the "rights reserved" symbols I found that interesting.