SCHOOL

What would it be like to go to school at Pendla Primary in Port Elizabeth, South Africa?

· You would have to walk a long distance to school every day. If you’re young, the roads you would need to cross would be too dangerous for you.

· You would start school with prayer (at a public school).

· Your hallways would be outside. There would be no air conditioning, so you’d have to keep all the windows and doors open, even if it’s raining.

· As a white student, you would be the minority. Or more specifically, the only white person in a 5 mile radius.

· Your teacher may be late for school. Or she may not come at all. If she doesn’t come, plan on being put into another grade and just trying to follow along for the day. If you don’t know anything about what that grade is learning, you can just sit on the floor in front of the chalkboard for the day. There are no substitute teachers.

· There would be between 30 and 50 students in your class.

· Where would you sit? Your chair would be broken in some way. The legs might not be attached to the chair part, so you would fall off if you weren’t paying attention. The back of your chair may be broken off, so there is sharp jagged plastic to watch out for. You might have a chair that is much too small for you, like 1st grade size chair in a 7th grade room. You can write your name on the back of your chair in chalk if you want to try and have the same one each day. Your chair might be taken away if your teacher needs one to sit down in or if there is a guest in the room. Then you should share with another student or just kneel for the time. Chairs are not necessary for learning.

· Your desk would be wooden, like the ones you think of in a little house on the prairie school house.

· You would wear a uniform.

· Your teacher may not be knowledgeable in the subject she is teaching you.

· Name, date, school subject and title must be written at the top of every piece of paper. In perfect cursive. Straight. Use a ruler to make sure. You’ll have about ten minutes of class time to do this, so don’t hurry or anything.

· You’ll switch class subjects every thirty minutes. But there are no clocks and your teachers do not have watches, so don’t expect for that to happen on time. There are 11 thirty-minute periods in a day. Everyday your schedule will switch, don’t expect any sort of routine. You may have English 4 times in one day, but all different and spread out periods. Your teachers also probably will not know what class to be in at what time.

· The little kids still love any attention from the older “cooler” kids and love to give hugs and get high fives.

· The teaching format is lecture. Your teacher will talk, you will write notes. She’ll ask a question and as a class, you will recite the answer or repeat after her. You will not have a chance to play games or do any sort of hands on activity.

· There is no art, gym, computers, special education or science experiments.

· You would have a Xhosa class and an English class. You would try and teach anyone who comes into your classroom your first language, Xhosa. And you would giggle when they can’t make the same noises with their mouth as you.

· Your school wouldn’t have a lot of extra money, so your teachers would give you no form of worksheets, handouts or printed tests.

· There are no overheads, whiteboards, Smartboards or projectors. The chalkboards are old and cracked. It is very hard for you to read what the teacher writes on the board. You and your classmates are in charge of getting the water to dip the chalk into and wiping the chalkboard off for your teachers.

· Your homework is probably a little bit less than schools in the US.

· If you misbehave, you may get hit with a hard plastic stick on your hands. This is against the law.

· Your school notebooks are given to you by the government. Maybe your other school supplies too. At any point your teacher can take your pencils, markers or pens to keep and use for herself. You will constantly be short pencils and erasers and forced to share and borrow from your classmates.

· At recess you can play netball (like basketball) or soccer. Both with deflated balls. You sing songs and love to dance at recess. You get way over the top excited when your picture is taken and when you get to look at yourself on a digital camera screen.

· Your smiles warm the hearts of American college students.

Note: this is ONE school in South Africa. There are many other schools that are more well-off. But most schools in the townships are about the same.

So after reading that, you probably can start to sense some of the things I love about my teaching experience here and some of my frustrations. I go back and forth with loving it and hating it. It is rarely the kids that are the problem, more the teachers I work with and the school system in general. Monday I came home really down on myself and thinking, “Why did I ever think I would want to be a teacher when I grow up?” I seriously began thinking of how I could get out of my major at St. Bens and do something else. I don’t think it was THAT horrible, the bad day was amplified by being stressed out about my papers, tired from being gone all weekend and sad about my friend dying. Tuesday was better and I think every day will get better as I get used to it and the teachers get used to me. On Tuesday we taught a good lesson. There was a double period (an hour then) and we were able to teach new vocab words. To review them, we played charades. The words we acted out were twigs, refreshed, strength, argue, contest and slightly. I think the 4th graders loved to see my teaching partner and I act silly and they got to participate and be loud in class. They don’t get to do that very often.
I’m leaving for Durban in a couple hours. I’m pretty excited about the weekend. It will just be cool to travel with the thirty of us. I know we’re going on a walking tour, a hike, on shark boats and to a ballet. And a lot more stuff to keep us busy for 5 days.

I hope you all have great weekends!! I promise I'll be posting more soon, sorry it's been kind of sporatic.

Anna, how did you like John Hopkins? Is it a pretty school? What’s the area like?

Some people have asked about my address…no I’m not begging for letters.
Lauren Neal
Langerry Holiday Flats #11
31 Beach Road, Humewood
Port Elizabeth 6001
SOUTH AFRICA