Eye-Opener

A few days ago I went with Debbie to some of the township schools. (The township is what they call the very poor communities.) Students have been back in school for two weeks since their holiday break. Debbie was meeting with some of the principals and teachers about buying books for them through the company she works for. It was interesting to see the differences between the schools we went to. Some of them were functioning very well and others not so much. Education and teachers in South Africa are not held to the same expectations as the ones in the US. Some examples would be:

• Leaving the students alone in the classroom all day or for long lengths of time. One teacher was hanging out in the parking lot with a visitor while his class was sitting in the room. 
• Harassing students with no consequences
• Another teacher had her Kindergarten class sitting outside the room in chairs while she mopped and deep cleaned her room. There was nothing on the walls or in the classroom and nothing for the children to work on. My question is, why didn't she clean the room before school started back and why did she wait until two weeks after school started? 
• The schools no longer pays for substitutes. If a teacher needs to be absent then the class just sits in the room all day. Rarely a parent will volunteer to come and watch the class. 
• One school we went to didn't even have books. Not one book to read to the students or for the students to read from. 
• Most classrooms have more than 50 students in it with only one teacher

These are just a few things that really bothered me. It kills me because the kids are effected by the flawed system. There is no order. Its such a huge problem. Over half of the students are illiterate. Only 35% of third graders and 28% of sixth graders are able to read. Such a shame....breaks my heart. This makes me think back to the class discussions I've had at school with us complaining about the Georgia Performance Standards, CRCT, No Child Left Behind, and the "bad" conditions of the Clarke County community. The Clarke County community is like a prestige private school compared to these schools I've seen. We have nothing to complain about in the United States or about our education system. These schools do not have any books to read to their students. No books. Most the families these children come from don't know where their next meal is coming from and we in America think we have problems? I know there are starving people in America too, but these people are living in shacks with no running water and no electricity. I don't know about you but, this reminds me of how blessed I am to be an American. How blessed I am to have the things I have. That I've never had to worry about missing a meal. I'm so thankful for the many blessings the Lord has given me. 

  

All that may have seemed a little negative, but I would like to say that I did meet some wonderful teachers and principals who had a strong passion for education and the children in their school. Some of them working overtime with no pay while they are furthering their own education. They are working to make a difference in the lives of the children in the community. This is also true of Debbie. She has such a desire to help the struggling schools, teachers, students and parents. I hope that I keep the same desire as she has for all the years she has been working in education. She is a wonderful asset to the township community and has helped many. 

The second picture above is of sheep heads. The Africans cook them in the pot until they are black and then they eat the gums of the sheep. Tasty? I wasn't brave enough to try it.