Teaching Travails

Today, I taught my creative writing workshop to the Grade 8 learners at Siyabulela, another Langa primary school.

Township schools are overcrowded and underfunded, and Siyabulela is no exception. When I walked into a Grade 8 classroom of approximately 40 students, I had no idea how I would carry my voice for two hours in that space, let alone how the students would benefit at all from the lecture-type class that this setup would require.

As I performed the mental gymnastics this predicament demanded, the LEAPSA who once student-taught this class, and who accompanied me today, said, "We can open up this partition, so you can teach the entire grade at the same time." He then lifted the classroom divider, to unveil about 40 more Grade 8 students.

Classroom management was a nightmare. Not a disciplinarian by nature, I refused to embody the impatient, excessively authoritarian figure to which many of these children were preemptively reacting. Still, I was hoarse by the time we left, because the acoustics and teacher/student ratio forced me to strain my voice beyond its natural capacity, just to deliver the lesson.

Today, I can't imagine ever becoming a full-time teacher. I am not unbudgeable on this, but it won't be up for discussion for a long time.