Imfundo: Visions of the Future for South African Education

You may wonder what does the above picture have to do with education and South Africa. The principal showed me it today as a text message from his boss. I think it shows how humor and support from those above us always is a good thing, no matter which country you may claim as your own.

I had a wonderful time today. I even got to add to the educational conversation that was happening at Emfundwini. I call it a conversation because today I was unsure who was the teacher and who was the learner because I learned so much from just talking to everyone. Students and teachers and even the kitchen staff.

Before I forget let me share a few words of Xhosa with you. It is not the same as hearing it pronounced but it is still lovely.

Enkosi = thanks
Molo = hello (to one person)
molweni = hello everyone (group of people)

unjani? = How are you?

Naiphilile = I ame doing fine or I am ok

Hlalanu phantsi = you may sit down

idada = dove
nkomo = cow
kwe = beside
inja = dog
itipoti = teapot
iyoyo = yoyo
ijagi = jug
ikati = cat
ikepoi = cap

1 = inye
2 zimbini
3 zintathu
4 zine
5 zintlanu
6 ntandathu
7 sixhenxe
8 sibhozo
9 lithoba
10 lishumi

Thulani = be quiet
ninjathetha = you may speak

There is so much to tell its hard to just choose a few. The above words were taught to me over food. The cooks took time and patiently explained the meaning of all the words. After the principal finished his lunch, he wrote down the spelling and the meaning of the words of the basic greeting and words that might be needed to control the class.

The three main highlights of today would be team teaching with Dr. Huber and Whitty, watching Kama student lead the learners in a discussion about why children drop out of school and the GM South Africa Foundation Seed of Peace Project Awards ceremony.

The learners took their life orientation exams this morning. Unfortunately the copier was broken. However they had a back up plan: the principal came and hand wrote the exam questions on the blackboard every 30 minutes he would write a new question next to the previous ones. Afterwards they had a short break. This is when I was able to talk to the kitchen staff and they explained the Grade 1 lesson on the blackboard of their room. I came back to see Whitty teaching a lesson about the difference between mass and gravity.

He told the students to turn to their seat mate and share if they thought there was a difference or if they thought they were two words for the same thing. The kids discussed the concepts, mostly in Xhosa but a few tried to talk about it in English. After a while Whitty asked them what were their thoughts. Kama who seems to be a student leader, stood up and said "Everything has mass, but weight has something to do with gravity."

It was interesting to come up with illustrations and examples to explain the concepts. Dr. Huber drew a picture of a scale to explain mass and I constructed a 3 D version of his scale using a rock, a piece of wood, a paper airplane and chalk. We talked about how mass stayed the same on Earth and on the moon. We stress the importance of knowing the difference between WEIGHT and MASS because in our conversation with the students we could see they were still using the terms as if they meant the same thing. I told them that they must remember that Mass of an object stays the same because its based on the molecules in you. However WEIGHT changes because it is based on mass AND gravity.

I loved Whitty's illustration of a man who jumps to a certain height on Earth can jump higher on the moon, not because his mass has changed but because the gravity is different in both places. He reminded them of how the man on the moon was walking. It was great to watch him to pretend to moon walk. I will upload the picture soon as I speak of the other two highlights of today.

Student debate on why people drop out of school at age 10:

Kama and Nwabiga were the student leaders today. For the most part I just sat back and listen to them lead the class in both English and Xhosa discuss the issues. The principal challenged both 7th grade classes to debate a topic and they decided amongst themselves to debate education.

Reason they wrote on the board:

1. Abuse
2. Education
3. Rights
4. poverty
5. insulting (bullying/abuse in school)

Questions Kama asked her fellow students:

"Why do some men think its ok to hit a woman? "

One student answered: "They think they are stronger?"
Kama: "Why do they think that?"

Then she turned and asked me "what kind of abuses do women do to men?"

After overcoming my surprise, I answered "I do not know what it is like in South Africa but in America women are more likely to verbally abuse a man than physically abuse them. They insult and belittle and make them feel stupid or unworthy. We as human should be a family and help build one another up. However there are some people who like to tear others down. make them feel very little. Sometimes its a cycle. They do it because someone else made them feel that way and to make themselves better they make someone else feel even littler than themselves."

After that the students exploded in Xhosa and I caught a few comments about how sometimes the women cause the men to be violent but could not follow all of it.

Nwabiga mentioned gender sterotypes.

Eventually they came to the subject of poverty and why that would cause some people to drop out of school. Kama asked them "what leads some of the other countries to poverty?" She gave an example of a country but I did not catch it.

I did not get to hear the response because a little boy walked up to the desk and spouted out a string of Xhosa. I just looked at the class in confusion and they all burst out laughing. Eventually one of them told me that he says its time to eat and I dismissed the class. I found the experience very rewarding and encouraging to know that South Africa's youths are able to think independently about topics and concepts that affect them personally and take it to a global level.

We then went to the GM South Africa Foundation Seed of Peace Project Awards ceremony. I did not realize that Leanne was the Master of Ceremonies, but I will have to ask her for her jokes on Sunday on the way to church because my son would love them. It was wonderful. I think their websites says it best but I will post some pictures when I get a chance.

GM South Africa Foundation Seed of Peace website:

http://www.gmsouthafricafoundation.com/project_default.asp?projectid=18&pageid=158

Quote from website:

"The Peace education initiative of the GM South Africa Foundation was launched in 2005 in partnership with the PE District Office of the Department of Education.
Quite simply, the aim of this initiative is to increase the knowledge and skills of teachers so that they are able to create a safer and more harmonious teaching and learning environment by acting as peace educators, peace builders and peace makers within their schools.
Mechanisms are put in place to assist teachers as they apply the concepts they have learnt, one being the annual Peace Promoting Schools Award which encourages schools to implement peace education projects and activities and acknowledge the achievements of participants. To be eligible for an award, schools are required to complete three projects during the year according to set criteria.