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Eventually,
after much deliberation (and no coffee because there was no water
because the windpump was not working because the wind was not blowing)
we decided that we would divide the group into four—luckily
it was June—thus winter in a summer rainfall area, so no rain
expected and plenty of glorious sunshine to keep us warm under the
trees.
Between the three of us, I had two subects to teach—Afrikaans
and History and the other two were the Maths and Science teachers.
So we would circulate the groups between the three of us with each
of the groups taking turns to be on a break in between being taught.
I had no idea how the other two were going to teach their subjects
but decided to stay out of that conversation.
I inquired about the availablity of books and pens and was informed
that the pupils had to provide their own which would involve a trip
to the nearest town—over the border in South Africa, so it
would take a whole day.
We gestured the kids over to us. By then they had figured from our
inspection of the terrain that we had made a plan and they were
keen to start. They settled down cross-legged in the dust under
the tree and I was impressed by their attitude of happy anticipation
and confidence that we were going to make this work for them.
Looking them over, I was surprised to see that many of them were
not kids but young adults. I subsequently learned that, as many
families were too poor to send their kids to school, the elder kids
went first, then took off a year or two or three to find work to
help support the family and to send the younger ones to start school.
As large families were the norm, it took many years of juggling
school and working to get all the kids educated and I had pupils
in my class ranging from late teens to early thirty year-olds.
When we had explained our Plan of Action to them, they informed
us that they had in the meantime decided that 4 of them would go
to town over the week-end and buy everybody's stationery so no-one
needed to miss school.
Their dedication and determination to complete their education in
the face of the kind of obstacles they faced, was impressive, to
say the least and suddenly I knew these kids (and the "non-kids")
were extra-special and teaching them was going to be a major challenge,
but also eventually a major triumph. I mean—considering where
we were starting from, things could only improve!
And considering where I came from—'teaching' under a very prescriptive
and strict "education system" which annoyed the living daylights
out of me as it did not seem to consider the children's individual
educational needs at all, this new experience of teaching under
the blue sky instead seemed like heaven to me! I could not wait
to start!
And start we did the very next Monday—each pupil equipped with
two thick exercise books per subject and enough pencils (they never
used pens and that was fine with me!).
The only "little problem" was that we had no textbooks. To the pupils
that was "no problem!"—their standard attitude to any "little
problem".
"You can tell us!" they said with touching confidence, sitting ready
in the dust with their books on their knees and their pencils poised.
And so I started teaching under a tree in a school with no system—a
great improvement from where I had been, I thought.
Despite the lack of coffee………
Part 3: Teaching
under a tree
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