I nearly died at a township school

I nearly died at a township school

 When I was a young boy, at about 10 years of age, I had an anger that was unmatched; I was also taller than many of my class mates at school and had a very huge head. With that anger, I “talked” back at teachers and anyone who dared tell me anything I perceived to be “nonsensical” and I had the energy to disrupt a class when I wanted. So all of this made me very popular among school mates and unfortunately very unpopular among teachers, actually one could say teachers did not like me. So I went through the first five years of my primary school years as a kid that was said to be “disrespectful” ! This nearly killed my confidence and performance in school, actually in life.

Kids do not know wrong or right, so they never really do something with having a entirely full understanding of how it affects others or how it is perceived, kids just reflect the environment of which they are from so to conclude that they are disrespectful and treat them in  a way that kills their self esteem is really unbecoming  , it is not a role of a teacher to kill a child’s self-esteem, nor is it a role of a parent, a kid must be seen as a person to nurture and groom, make them better adults, do not alienate them. This is what most township school teachers do not understand, even at this age in time, and this really is affecting the black community.

Anyway, continuing with my story. Most of my primary school teachers disliked me, it was so bad that my parents saw that my life could really be harmed and with the little they had they decided to take me to a Saturday school, I thank them for that move. At the Saturday school teachers were a totally different breed there, actually most of them were Zimbabweans and other nationalities, there were close to non-South Africans at that school. Their approach to education was something else, it was more incentive based, and you get incentives for showing just a bit of good behavior. So instead of assuming that every child must have a “good behavior” and alienating those who do not have it, the school understood that we are all from different backgrounds and our behavior is mostly influenced by those backgrounds, so the school focused more on encouraging “good behavior” in everyone and not only did they do this with incentives but they also mixed those who do not seem to portray good behavior with those who portray good behavior and treated them the same, this encouraged those who do not have good behavior to learn it from those who had it. This made me a better version of my self and I redirected my energy to more positive tasks, I went on to get awards in Maths and science at the Saturday school and also became a prefect. My life started changing for the better.

But how many parents out there afford to take their kids to a better school that has a positive approach towards teaching and learning, it is a few in our country, many kids are in township schools. This means  that more kids are killed in lower income communities of South Africa, they are told that they are dumb and their self esteem is totally crashed, they are alienated from other kids. It is a reality that in township schools, it is kids from better earning households who are given a chance to learn, those who come later to school because they can not afford transport are expelled from school! Those kids who always come to school with dirty uniform are bullied by other learners and discriminated by teachers just because they can not afford soap to wash their uniforms. How many more kids are said to be disrespectful because of how they express themselves?, it is far too many.

 I had a chance to teach kids at a LSEN school(a school for learners with special educational needs) in 2018. I learnt that most of the kids there actually do not deserve to be in that school, they were placed in that school because teachers were unable to discipline them, a job that teachers are tasked with. Those kids had broken spirits, they were told that they are stupid, retarded and had no place in the normal school. They were so broken that they did not ever attempt to answer a question when asked and they were even afraid to learn. I had to spend more time motivating them, I told them stories of people who dared to defy what people told them, people who became great when others told them that they amount to nothing. After about 5 weeks of motivation, I had results, this kids started answering questions and participating in lessons. It dawned to me that these kids were falsely diagnosed and so I attempted to write a letter to the MEC of basic education in Gauteng but when the principal learnt that I was writing a letter, I was kicked out of the school within just a week. This means that more and more kids are dying.

Death does not have to be the soul living the flesh, death is also when one has no confidence and hope,. It is death because at that stage of life, an individual is almost unable to do anything that is meaningful in their life, they are just breathing and moving around without a clue what will their lives be like in the future. Most of people in that stage of life often wonder when their physical death occur. Many kids die in township schools, and as long as this happens it means the future of our country is at risk. We need a new breed of teachers at township schools, we need people who are passionate about helping others reach their full potential, we need people who love to see progress in others, teachers who do not only teach for salary but people who become whole when their job bears good fruit. Our schools must be places that give life instead, and you will ensure that such happens.