Day One...or Day 129

Today was day one. Again! After much ado about logistics and a discouraging lack of communication, I began teaching at St. Paul’s Primary today. The school year of 2009 just began in the Western Cape and, fortunately, I made several trips last week to meet with the school principals and teachers who quickly warmed my enthusiasm for the project.

It is quite a large school, ranging from Grade “R” (our Kindergarten) to Grade 7, with 670 students to boot. Most grades are split into 2 so that often times the class sizes range from 35 to 50. St. Paul’s offers quite an interesting history. Located in the Bo-Kaap, nestled just below Signal Hill (aka. The Lion’s Rump as it is a continuation of Lion’s Head), it was once a mission school of the Anglican Church when built 150 years ago. During the Apartheid era it was one of the first “coloured” schools to allow black students to integrate into its population.

The Bo-Kaap is a very old colonial neighborhood made up originally of the “Cape Malay” people (aka known here as “coloured”), who were slaves at some point or another (Malay refers to Malaysia, though it is a misnomer seeing as less than 1% of slaves originated there. Bo-Kaap is also home to many mosques and a thriving Muslim population, as Islam was once a strong part of Cape Malay culture. As you can see, it is a very colorful neighborhood, a reaction of joy that spilled out when oppressed inhabitants were finally given permission to paint their homes any color of their choosing.

It is interesting that the Bo-Kaap has traditionally been a fusion of cultures, for St. Paul’s Primary is just another expression of its multi-culturalism. St. Paul’s reputation to include black students in the 70s, spread quickly to the black townships outside the city center and soon students were attending from all over the area. The Anglican Church no longer runs the school as it is a public institution and only 30% of its students come from the neighborhood. As an English teacher at the school this will create a very interesting dynamic - I have pupils who speak Portuguese from Angola, French from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Shona from Zimbabwe, Afrikaans/Xhosa/Zulu from South Africa…and a handful that speak English as their first language.

It remains to be seen exactly how I will fit into St. Paul’s Primary, but for now it appears I will be teaching reading, writing, and spelling to learners in grades 4 & 5, giving me almost 200 new names to learn. I will also be working with teachers in the lower grades to offer smaller teaching sessions to remedial learners and hopefully a few gifted children as well. With so many students in a class, it is obvious how one must teach to the middle and that both the exceptional and the slower students fall to the wayside in the process. I would love to incorporate some art into my lessons but I’m going to have to be thrifty as I don’t have the personal budget to tend to 200+ students…but we shall see - I think recyclables are going to provide the way.

So tomorrow, day two. Another start in another school, but I find that my time in the Free State prepared me well for this next venture.

p.s. as I haven't taken any photos at the school yet, I cannot take credit for the above-posted images.