It has been awhile since my last post, but things have just been crazy busy recently and I haven’t had very much time to sit down and write. I’ve still been having the time of my life here, and learning and experiencing so much with every day that comes. I’ll just recap some of the most exciting things that have been happening as of late.
I saw Desmond Tutu speak at my school! It was incredible, even just for sitting in the same room as a man who has had such an immense impact on South African history and post-apartheid thought. In case some might not be as familiar with him, he is an Archbishop, has won the Nobel Peace Prize, and was the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, which was a worldwide movement following the end of apartheid to overcome the bloodiness and hatred of the past made to foster nationwide healing through uncovering truth and granting forgiveness. In exchange for perpetrators coming forward to confess their crimes and showing repentance, they would be granted amnesty if deemed by the commission to be expressing the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and the actions were politically motivated and not excessive. This system has many flaws in itself, including difficulties in ensuring the “whole truth” is being told, with displaying “true” remorse, victims feeling unsatisfied or cheated, etc. but largely, it has been a fairly effective path of moving on and pressing forward into the future as opposed to getting hung up on the past, which cannot be changed. The occasion for Tutu’s presence was a debate among many other intellectuals, former political prisoners and human rights activists from Liberia, Congo, and South Africa. The debate was entitled “Speak Truth to Power”, which centered on Kerry Kenndy’s book of the same name, and she headed the debate. It was all about not just sitting back and accepting what those in powerful positions decide to impose upon the masses, and making sure that the public is problematizing and questioning each action and policy being passed in their country. It was really interesting, and a lot of the speakers ended up emphasizing the importance of the youth not being passive but getting involved in what goes on in their country and government, and how we are the ones who hold the key to change now and for future generations. I enjoyed it, especially since as Desmond Tutu was walking in, I was sitting in the aisle seat and he looked me right in the eye and greeted me! I was expecting it to be a momentous occasion and to not even be able to get in to see him, but it was in an intimate venue and felt very personal. Apparently he comes to UCT a lot, so for many South African students, it was no big deal.
Another amazing experience we had was going to Robben Island, which served as an isolated prison during apartheid, especially for political prisoners. It is probably most famous for being the place where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 of the 27 years of his life he spent in prison. We toured around the island on a bus with a very lively and knowledgeable tour guide, who showed us many of the sites, including the mass leper graves (the island was previously used as a spot of exile for lepers where thousands died and never received proper burials nor even had their bodies identified, and when it was to become a prison, they simply built on top of the thousands of corpses); the lime quarry where prisoners were forced to do hard labor for hours, and which also ended up as a place where great minds would debate and conspire, formulating the birth of a revolution while out of earshot of the guards; and the schools, mosques and churches that the people currently living on the island frequent. One of the sites that had the biggest impact on me was this little one room flat, far away from everything else, where Robert Sobukwe, considered during apartheid to be one of the greatest threats to their institution of government and also seen as one of the leading inspirations for the anti-apartheid movement was kept for years in complete isolation until his death. He was the founder of the Pan-Africanist Congress, and led the famed Pass-Law protest, where thousands of blacks burned their hated passbooks that the white government mandated they carry at all time to identify that they were black and regulate where they were allowed to go to regulate their movement and tell if their taxes and fees were all in order (which they often weren’t and this landed many in jail for extended periods of times). It was basically another tool to dehumanize and enumerate blacks, making them seem more like possessions or dogs to be categorized and kept watch on. This protest led to the devastatingly infamous Sharpeville Massacre as well, where police opened fire on hundreds of protesters, killing many (mostly due to gun shots to the BACK-indicating that victims were running away, not pursuing or acting aggressive toward the police). I recommend you Google or Wikipedia any of these terms if you’d like to know more about them, or just ask me. Anyway, what really got me was the way the prison guards were instructed to treat him. It was as if he did not even exist; was nothing more than a window through which to gaze. They were under strict and impenetrable orders to not say a single word to him, nor even acknowledge his existence in the slightest way. Two guards were instructed to stand outside of his house, and if either one so much as glanced at him as if he were more than air, the other was compelled to tell their superiors, and that person would be terminated from their job, and severely punished. I can’t even imagine the dehumanization that he must have felt, and I don’t know how he didn’t go insane under such trying conditions. The strategy of the government was obvious: to completely destroy and break his spirit to ensure that the threat of even the idea of him was totally obliterated. But they had to keep him alive, to avoid the major backlash that would have occurred if word got out that they had killed him or let him die. So instead they let his soul rot away, and another casualty of the revolution was tallied. We also saw Nelson Mandela’s cell, which was powerful, but felt extremely touristy and almost cheapened by the manner in which people were flocking to it talking pictures and how they were acting. We were also rushed, and I would have preferred to have a more individualized and personal experience there, even just a few minutes to quietly reflect, but that wasn’t possible at the time. One of the other more powerful moments for me was the boat ride over to Robben Island, just thinking about how Mandela and all the others must have felt when they took this journey across the ocean; how confused and scared they must have been inside but how courageous and inspiring they were for being able to “speak truth to power” (as the debate discussed earlier suggested) and put their lives on the line for something they so strongly believed in with endless selflessness and conviction, sacrificing themselves to the revolution. That was a unique and reflective experience for me, and it got me thinking about what cause I live for; what it is that I would lay down everything⎯family, friends, comfort, physical and mental stability and wellness, etc.⎯to fight for. I am still figuring that out, by the way, but I have some strong indications and possibilities churning around in my head.
I still need to write about so much, including my homestay this past weekend in a colored township called Oceanview, but I am going to save that for the next post, which I promise will come soon. This one is already long enough as it is, so I’ll break it up into two parts. It is currently torrentially storming and hailing!!! Until later…much love and peace!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
LEAP school and South African education
So this week, we started going to the various volunteering sites that we will be helping out throughout the year. There are several choices of various organizations to volunteer with, including the Ark, a refuge for drug addicts, school for children, home for orphans, rehabilitation center, and so much more all in one location; the TB hospital, where kids aged from a couple days old to mid-teens⎯and also a few adults, come for treatment for various stages and strains of the Tuberculosis disease; and schools and sports programs at children’s homes. However, the organization I chose to volunteer with is called the LEAP School of Science and Math, which is a surprisingly well-developed and structured school where children pay a yearly school fee, wear school uniforms, and have (this is of course relatively speaking) a fair amount of resources at their disposal, including some computers, desks, supplies, food, etc.
I am positive a lot of you might be wondering why, out of all these options, I might have picked to donate my time to such a, by comparison, seemingly well-to-do school when there are so many schools especially in the townships of South Africa that have little more than the ground and a stick to write their lessons with nor an adequate building other than a small shack or a mud hut. My answer to this has a lot to do with my recent train of thoughts and manner in which I am trying to formulate my understanding of this complex country and its even more perplexing history. The organizer of our involvement at the LEAP school, Bones, has really had a big impact in developing these concepts in my mind, and I honestly look up to and admire him very much for his openness, his philosophies on education, teaching, politics, and life within and also outside of South Africa. I would try to sum these thoughts up, but I feel it would only be a severe injustice, because hearing him speak with such passion, power and conviction is really more of an experience, and it does not lend itself very readily to brief summation. Therefore, I will just give a little of my thoughts, keeping in mind that I am drawing some of these beliefs and ideas from conversations with him, as well as has been current content and discussion in many of my classes.
Yes, it is true that South Africa has had a, for genuine lack of a more fitting word (and sorry for anyone offended by the bad language), but a seriously fucked up past. There is no other way to put it. Apartheid truly affected every human being in South Africa on the whole: mind, body, soul, spirit, socially, physically…on every level imaginable. I mean, just try to think for a minute that one day, the government decides that you can no longer live in your home, go to school where you do, ride certain buses, go in certain shops and areas, or even go to certain cities, solely on the basis of the color of your skin. Imagine the confusion, resentment, hatred, sorrow this would invoke towards the oppressors, and more devastatingly, upon oneself. Although apartheid has since been terminated, it is obvious that so many of the side effects it produced are still rearing their ugly heads⎯as is evident in a trip to the townships, in the separation that occurs at night clubs, in job and income disparities, etc. One of the systems though, that has been most tragically affected is the education system. Black students were forced to learn in what was considered the “Bantu education system”, whereby complete racial segregation occurred in all institutions of learning. The ideology behind this “Bantu education” was that blacks were culturally “different,” and therefore needed to be separated and educated in a “different” manner. Blacks went to black schools, and whites went to white schools. You can just envision the gross disparities that existed, given the governmental regime and its outlook on the situation, as well as the particulars of the apartheid laws, between a typical “black” school and any given “white” school. Thus, black education was, and frankly still is, far behind that of the privileged white education. For this reason, even now, more whites finish primary and secondary school, are accepted into university, and go on to further education and better job opportunities simply because they have had more opportunity to learn and grow and be intellectually stimulated at a more accelerated rate. Blacks were left behind in this process, and have not been given adequate resources, opportunities, and attention paid to correcting this injustice.
As shocking and egregious as this may seem and in reality is, there are a few different ways to approach dealing with this situation. One way is the victim approach: to sit around and feel sorry for the circumstances and for oneself, talking about how unfair it is, and how much blacks have been oppressed and kept down, and to sit around and wait for others (ie, the government, etc.) to come and change it. While this all is very true, I personally do not believe this to be the best way to go about it. The other way is the proactive approach: to say yes, we have been severely screwed over in our past, but what can we do to take a stand and create change in the system? How can we actively ensure that we are doing all we can to use what we have (however meager it might be) to get ahead on our own and succeed for ourselves? How can we morph and challenge the stereotypes and myths surrounding black education to change the direction that the system has existed in for so long and continues to operate within?
This is really what the LEAP school is all about: progressive action and working for positive change; not feeling sorry and shitty about the past inequities nor focusing on negativity, but instead on what we as a people, community, race, country can do for ourselves and stimulate and inspire in others to follow suit. Not only the system, but the workers within it as well; getting teachers excited about the changes and really loving teaching and coming up with new and innovative ways to teach that encompass all of the students without letting any fall through the cracks. This will prove an exceedingly difficult task, because as I have witnessed even in working in the Los Angeles School system, many teachers nowadays are only about getting tenure then going through the motions day after day, with hardly any deviation from the standardized CRAP curriculum and not teaching the material in a way that allows the students to relate to it and apply it to their own lives. LEAP is all about problematizing and reworking these ideas, and for this reason, I have been motivated with extreme passion to dedicate my time to better understanding and aiding in realizing this dream for the education system and the children of South Africa. The least I can do is to try to make a dent by bringing to the table my knowledge, ideas and resources in combination with those of my peers and others working at the school.
I came to South Africa with this certain mentality partially influenced by the western perceptions of Africa that I have discussed in my previous post, where a small part of me thought that I wanted to help “save” Africa, and work in these severely tragic and underdeveloped areas with destitute people. It is not to say that there is no value in this, nor that I won’t be spending some time doing that myself. But I just think there is so much more to Africa as a continent and South Africa as a country that we tend to overlook and that is overshadowed by theses negative associations. I see real, tangible change and straight-up revolution in what is going on at LEAP, and that is really what inspires me to no end. I wish my words could even begin to portray the extent of my feelings and excitement, but I fear instead my babbling may be cheapening it. Therefore, I will stop here, but I encourage anyone interested in what I am trying to convey and the topic at hand to email me with questions, comments, or anything, because this is something that I am truly exhilarated about and would love to talk to anyone about. Also you can click HERE to go to the LEAP school website, which unfortunately seems out of date, but nonetheless informative.
As I spend more time at the school, I hope to develop stronger feelings and opinions, and I will definitely keep you guys posted. As far as what I will actually be doing in my time at LEAP, we will be assigned 3-5 young children, grades 9-12, to partake in a mentor relationship, whereby we assist the children with schoolwork and project, sit in with them on their classes, participate in extracurricular activities, and sometime just hang out and be a presence in the child’s life, trying to get to know them on a more personal basis. It really is whatever you make of it and whatever you are willing to put into it. Most of the kids come from a township called Langa, and many of them travel very far distances to get to this school. It really is an incredible opportunity for these kids who otherwise would have nothing near the caliber of this school and its education system. It is not only a school focused on learning subjects, but is trying to make active, global, aware, conscious citizens out of the adolescents who matriculate through their doors. LEAP has a “code of conduct” for student, as one student today was explaining to us, that is more geared towards conduct for life, one rule including being “open-minded and willing to talk and discuss”, which this student explained is something that is culturally different and fairly difficult for her to come to terms with, but that she is accepting the challenge. It’s funny, when she mentioned that she was a little unsure and how much she liked the school’s code of conduct, I was expecting a shallow complaint such as not liking the school uniforms or the food, but instead I received that pieces of unexpectedly insightful commentary. Anyway, I said I would stop myself from going on and on, and here I am again. So…I’m sure I’ll be writing on this again soon. I look forward to any insight on this that anyone might have. Thanks, and much love.
I am positive a lot of you might be wondering why, out of all these options, I might have picked to donate my time to such a, by comparison, seemingly well-to-do school when there are so many schools especially in the townships of South Africa that have little more than the ground and a stick to write their lessons with nor an adequate building other than a small shack or a mud hut. My answer to this has a lot to do with my recent train of thoughts and manner in which I am trying to formulate my understanding of this complex country and its even more perplexing history. The organizer of our involvement at the LEAP school, Bones, has really had a big impact in developing these concepts in my mind, and I honestly look up to and admire him very much for his openness, his philosophies on education, teaching, politics, and life within and also outside of South Africa. I would try to sum these thoughts up, but I feel it would only be a severe injustice, because hearing him speak with such passion, power and conviction is really more of an experience, and it does not lend itself very readily to brief summation. Therefore, I will just give a little of my thoughts, keeping in mind that I am drawing some of these beliefs and ideas from conversations with him, as well as has been current content and discussion in many of my classes.
Yes, it is true that South Africa has had a, for genuine lack of a more fitting word (and sorry for anyone offended by the bad language), but a seriously fucked up past. There is no other way to put it. Apartheid truly affected every human being in South Africa on the whole: mind, body, soul, spirit, socially, physically…on every level imaginable. I mean, just try to think for a minute that one day, the government decides that you can no longer live in your home, go to school where you do, ride certain buses, go in certain shops and areas, or even go to certain cities, solely on the basis of the color of your skin. Imagine the confusion, resentment, hatred, sorrow this would invoke towards the oppressors, and more devastatingly, upon oneself. Although apartheid has since been terminated, it is obvious that so many of the side effects it produced are still rearing their ugly heads⎯as is evident in a trip to the townships, in the separation that occurs at night clubs, in job and income disparities, etc. One of the systems though, that has been most tragically affected is the education system. Black students were forced to learn in what was considered the “Bantu education system”, whereby complete racial segregation occurred in all institutions of learning. The ideology behind this “Bantu education” was that blacks were culturally “different,” and therefore needed to be separated and educated in a “different” manner. Blacks went to black schools, and whites went to white schools. You can just envision the gross disparities that existed, given the governmental regime and its outlook on the situation, as well as the particulars of the apartheid laws, between a typical “black” school and any given “white” school. Thus, black education was, and frankly still is, far behind that of the privileged white education. For this reason, even now, more whites finish primary and secondary school, are accepted into university, and go on to further education and better job opportunities simply because they have had more opportunity to learn and grow and be intellectually stimulated at a more accelerated rate. Blacks were left behind in this process, and have not been given adequate resources, opportunities, and attention paid to correcting this injustice.
As shocking and egregious as this may seem and in reality is, there are a few different ways to approach dealing with this situation. One way is the victim approach: to sit around and feel sorry for the circumstances and for oneself, talking about how unfair it is, and how much blacks have been oppressed and kept down, and to sit around and wait for others (ie, the government, etc.) to come and change it. While this all is very true, I personally do not believe this to be the best way to go about it. The other way is the proactive approach: to say yes, we have been severely screwed over in our past, but what can we do to take a stand and create change in the system? How can we actively ensure that we are doing all we can to use what we have (however meager it might be) to get ahead on our own and succeed for ourselves? How can we morph and challenge the stereotypes and myths surrounding black education to change the direction that the system has existed in for so long and continues to operate within?
This is really what the LEAP school is all about: progressive action and working for positive change; not feeling sorry and shitty about the past inequities nor focusing on negativity, but instead on what we as a people, community, race, country can do for ourselves and stimulate and inspire in others to follow suit. Not only the system, but the workers within it as well; getting teachers excited about the changes and really loving teaching and coming up with new and innovative ways to teach that encompass all of the students without letting any fall through the cracks. This will prove an exceedingly difficult task, because as I have witnessed even in working in the Los Angeles School system, many teachers nowadays are only about getting tenure then going through the motions day after day, with hardly any deviation from the standardized CRAP curriculum and not teaching the material in a way that allows the students to relate to it and apply it to their own lives. LEAP is all about problematizing and reworking these ideas, and for this reason, I have been motivated with extreme passion to dedicate my time to better understanding and aiding in realizing this dream for the education system and the children of South Africa. The least I can do is to try to make a dent by bringing to the table my knowledge, ideas and resources in combination with those of my peers and others working at the school.
I came to South Africa with this certain mentality partially influenced by the western perceptions of Africa that I have discussed in my previous post, where a small part of me thought that I wanted to help “save” Africa, and work in these severely tragic and underdeveloped areas with destitute people. It is not to say that there is no value in this, nor that I won’t be spending some time doing that myself. But I just think there is so much more to Africa as a continent and South Africa as a country that we tend to overlook and that is overshadowed by theses negative associations. I see real, tangible change and straight-up revolution in what is going on at LEAP, and that is really what inspires me to no end. I wish my words could even begin to portray the extent of my feelings and excitement, but I fear instead my babbling may be cheapening it. Therefore, I will stop here, but I encourage anyone interested in what I am trying to convey and the topic at hand to email me with questions, comments, or anything, because this is something that I am truly exhilarated about and would love to talk to anyone about. Also you can click HERE to go to the LEAP school website, which unfortunately seems out of date, but nonetheless informative.
As I spend more time at the school, I hope to develop stronger feelings and opinions, and I will definitely keep you guys posted. As far as what I will actually be doing in my time at LEAP, we will be assigned 3-5 young children, grades 9-12, to partake in a mentor relationship, whereby we assist the children with schoolwork and project, sit in with them on their classes, participate in extracurricular activities, and sometime just hang out and be a presence in the child’s life, trying to get to know them on a more personal basis. It really is whatever you make of it and whatever you are willing to put into it. Most of the kids come from a township called Langa, and many of them travel very far distances to get to this school. It really is an incredible opportunity for these kids who otherwise would have nothing near the caliber of this school and its education system. It is not only a school focused on learning subjects, but is trying to make active, global, aware, conscious citizens out of the adolescents who matriculate through their doors. LEAP has a “code of conduct” for student, as one student today was explaining to us, that is more geared towards conduct for life, one rule including being “open-minded and willing to talk and discuss”, which this student explained is something that is culturally different and fairly difficult for her to come to terms with, but that she is accepting the challenge. It’s funny, when she mentioned that she was a little unsure and how much she liked the school’s code of conduct, I was expecting a shallow complaint such as not liking the school uniforms or the food, but instead I received that pieces of unexpectedly insightful commentary. Anyway, I said I would stop myself from going on and on, and here I am again. So…I’m sure I’ll be writing on this again soon. I look forward to any insight on this that anyone might have. Thanks, and much love.
**Also, check out the new "Links I Love" part of my blog where I'll be posting links to sites that I find interesting or informative, and I just uploaded some more fun photos as well!
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