July 3 Friday
Ever notice how being with a group of adults and being told to pair up suddenly makes you feel like you’re twelve again and you have to worry about being the last one picked for kick ball? We had to choose roommates for our field study, which starts Tuesday (so the blogging may be pretty erratic), and I jumped on the person closest to me, who happened to be Kori. Basically I think I guilted her in to being my roommate, but so be it. Kori’s nice and I’ll be nice to her. At least she’s too nice to say no, when someone just turns to her and says, “so, you wanna be my roommate?”
Our last day of official lecture and learning at the University of the Western Cape was a good one. The state of education in South Africa faces many of the same problems we do. For example the argument over education in “mother tongue” is very much like our argument about how to handle ELL students. Is it better to give them content knowledge in their native language at the same time that we build their English skills? Science seems to say yes, but parents in the Cape want their children learning in English. After a lifetime of oppression, they see a “mother tongue” education as another way of keeping their children down, out of contention for university. Many of the Cape coloured (what they call themselves – Not a racial slur) also suffer from a lack of respect for education and therefore under appreciate it. 97% of South African children attend grades 1-9 and access is successful in SA, but “access hasn’t made success.” 2.8 million of the 6.8 million children who have graduated from high school have not gotten jobs and are not furthering their studies. What are they doing? Well, gangs run rampant and petty crime and thievery is a huge concern. SA ranks last in the industrialized countries of the world in literacy, yet many Africans from other countries come here for university access. Like I said before, SA is a study in contradictions and juxtapositions.
After our lecture on education, the third group of teachers lead a discussion activity that was a blast. They divided us up into 4 groups and we had to analyze a piece of the last couple days. For example, our group was suppose to be an advertisement company that created a campaign that illustrates the SA identity for the world cup, coming to SA in 2010. We could have responded with a political cartoon, skit, speech, sermon, comic strip, etc. We chose to create a skit of the advertisement company brainstorming session. Detailing SA identity is MUCH more complex than the US, ok well maybe not. I think in the US we just tend to ignore what we don’t want as part of our identity, but the problems here in SA are too vast and looming to ignore. SA is a study in contrasts. They have 11 official languages, but only English and Afrikans is used in the work place, justice system, and parliament. You can’t even get mortgage loan papers in Khosa or Zulu (two other very common languages).
After school today, we went to the Castle of Good Hope, the Cape’s oldest building completed in 1679. For 150 years it served as the heart of the Cape administration and the center of social and economic life, also the home of the governor. The grounds were amazing, but the batteries ran out in my camera, so I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked. I hung out with Jacob, Dixie, and Debra, all very fun, witty, and sarcastic in the exact right way. We then went on to the Gold Museum, not my cup of tea, but they have an interesting restaurant I’d like to try and get to when we return to Cape Town toward the end of July. This evening, we went to a Cape Malay restaurant, kind of a blend between Indian and Creole food. It was a little pricey, but very good. I had chicken curry, lamb somosas, spring rolls, and Nan, but they don’t call it Nan. Dixie, who has done at least a dozen of these trips, told us all about some of the different places to look for opportunities like this with NEH. I’m excited to think that this might be the first trip of many that could be open to me. It is now 10 pm, and I know it’s Friday night, many of my colleagues are out partying, but I am beat. I think I’ll turn in. G’night, Gracie.
Ever notice how being with a group of adults and being told to pair up suddenly makes you feel like you’re twelve again and you have to worry about being the last one picked for kick ball? We had to choose roommates for our field study, which starts Tuesday (so the blogging may be pretty erratic), and I jumped on the person closest to me, who happened to be Kori. Basically I think I guilted her in to being my roommate, but so be it. Kori’s nice and I’ll be nice to her. At least she’s too nice to say no, when someone just turns to her and says, “so, you wanna be my roommate?”
Our last day of official lecture and learning at the University of the Western Cape was a good one. The state of education in South Africa faces many of the same problems we do. For example the argument over education in “mother tongue” is very much like our argument about how to handle ELL students. Is it better to give them content knowledge in their native language at the same time that we build their English skills? Science seems to say yes, but parents in the Cape want their children learning in English. After a lifetime of oppression, they see a “mother tongue” education as another way of keeping their children down, out of contention for university. Many of the Cape coloured (what they call themselves – Not a racial slur) also suffer from a lack of respect for education and therefore under appreciate it. 97% of South African children attend grades 1-9 and access is successful in SA, but “access hasn’t made success.” 2.8 million of the 6.8 million children who have graduated from high school have not gotten jobs and are not furthering their studies. What are they doing? Well, gangs run rampant and petty crime and thievery is a huge concern. SA ranks last in the industrialized countries of the world in literacy, yet many Africans from other countries come here for university access. Like I said before, SA is a study in contradictions and juxtapositions.
After our lecture on education, the third group of teachers lead a discussion activity that was a blast. They divided us up into 4 groups and we had to analyze a piece of the last couple days. For example, our group was suppose to be an advertisement company that created a campaign that illustrates the SA identity for the world cup, coming to SA in 2010. We could have responded with a political cartoon, skit, speech, sermon, comic strip, etc. We chose to create a skit of the advertisement company brainstorming session. Detailing SA identity is MUCH more complex than the US, ok well maybe not. I think in the US we just tend to ignore what we don’t want as part of our identity, but the problems here in SA are too vast and looming to ignore. SA is a study in contrasts. They have 11 official languages, but only English and Afrikans is used in the work place, justice system, and parliament. You can’t even get mortgage loan papers in Khosa or Zulu (two other very common languages).
After school today, we went to the Castle of Good Hope, the Cape’s oldest building completed in 1679. For 150 years it served as the heart of the Cape administration and the center of social and economic life, also the home of the governor. The grounds were amazing, but the batteries ran out in my camera, so I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked. I hung out with Jacob, Dixie, and Debra, all very fun, witty, and sarcastic in the exact right way. We then went on to the Gold Museum, not my cup of tea, but they have an interesting restaurant I’d like to try and get to when we return to Cape Town toward the end of July. This evening, we went to a Cape Malay restaurant, kind of a blend between Indian and Creole food. It was a little pricey, but very good. I had chicken curry, lamb somosas, spring rolls, and Nan, but they don’t call it Nan. Dixie, who has done at least a dozen of these trips, told us all about some of the different places to look for opportunities like this with NEH. I’m excited to think that this might be the first trip of many that could be open to me. It is now 10 pm, and I know it’s Friday night, many of my colleagues are out partying, but I am beat. I think I’ll turn in. G’night, Gracie.
Powerful stuff! Yes, every society/culture faces many of these same challenges. I think we are more similar than different in oh so many ways.
ReplyDeleteThe parallels that can also be drawn between the Native American experience as well as the black/white relations in the states is astounding. The idea that this came post Hitler, you can see his ideas in the laws of apartheid.
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