The Story of a School Girl
It was later on during the day and I was driving home after a slightly shortened day in my schedule. The weather was also telling its own story; the heavens had opened the floodgates and the cloudburst was accompanied by formidable rumblings of thunder. The hail stones that were beating down on the car were not making it any easier either; nature was for some odd reason not in a good mood.
Note from the Editor: This story, written by one of our authors, Johnny Modipa, inspired me to include on the featured section of Teacher’s Monthly to give it the due attention it deserves.
Written by Johnny Modipa
It was later on during the day and I was driving home after a slightly shortened day in my schedule. The weather was also telling its own story; the heavens had opened the floodgates and the cloudburst was accompanied by formidable rumblings of thunder. The hail stones that were beating down on the car were not making it any easier either; nature was for some odd reason not in a good mood.
I suddenly saw this young girl clad in an old but neat school uniform, clutching at her school bag. She was making her best efforts to run against the drumming beat of the rain. She could not run very fast due to the downpour and her obvious fear of being struck down by the fierce lightning. Apart from that, she was really in great danger because of the hail stones that were beating down on her with neither mercy nor remorse. I did what any human being who had no cluttered conscience would do: I stopped the vehicle and beckoned her inside.
She scurried into the car, breathless and completely drenched.
A few minutes had rarely passed and I had already engaged this tiny girl in conversation, despite the fact that she was uncomfortable in the car of a stranger; and the fact that she was drenched and beaten up by the hail was not making it any easier. Indeed, she was from school. I got to find out that she was one of the bright sparks in her class, and her dream was to be the president. She looked rather frail, and her school uniform was not one of the best I’ve seen; yet her eyes radiated with passion for living and the unmistakable spirit of resolve that is evident on the face of everyone who had experienced both unparalleled triumphs and defeats.
Due to my interest in the bright sparks of the future, I sensed that she was hungry and volunteered to buy her a burger at the nearest food outlet. Despite her evident reluctance, she finally agreed. She might have somehow sensed that I harboured no ill-will nor hidden agendas.
While seating at the table in this food outlet, and as she continued eating her two burgers, I kept engaging her in conversation about her school, her dreams and the reasons why she stayed behind after school whereas everybody else had left. I could tell that she was now relaxed, and the tinge of uneasiness had disappeared. There is power in the taste of a cheese burger indeed!
She indicated that she was from a well-known township school a few kilometres from where we were: not well-known because of producing gems and jewels, but for its worst conditions and the “off the pitch incidents” that are too notorious to mention.
She had stayed behind after school for three reasons.
One, she stayed behind because one of her teachers had asked her to, on the basis that he wanted them to “discuss” her promising progress. It turned out that the teacher had sinister motives and started to talk about other things that were “extra-curricular” in nature. I shall therefore not dwell much on this first reason, because it already makes me want to throttle that teacher who participates in bringing this profession into disrepute.
Two, she was dedicated to her studies and wanted to produce the best out of her endeavours. Since she wants to be the president, she said, it’s in her interest to start studying like the president.
Lastly, she stayed behind because the school was the only place she could study in peace, because the conditions at home were not really an adequate platform for study purposes. Apart from the artefacts of abject poverty that were staring her in the face and telling her of the less chances of success she had, the high level of alcoholism, abuse and zero support for her academic escapades was central to her decision to stay behind.
I felt very heavy after this conversation, and drove her home. This thing that she called home was a sight to behold. The shack looked ready to collapse and….that’s a story for another day. While she was bidding me goodbye, she thanked me for both the lift and the food…and that’s when I noticed that she was still holding on to that small box of two burgers, as if she was holding a box of treasures from afar. I asked why she still has that box, and what she said felt like a venomous sting of an infuriated scorpion to my heart. She said “This is the best food I’ve ever had. There is no food at home. I have saved one burger for my younger sister, and I have saved the other half of the burger for myself for the rest of the week…..”
On my way home, many questions were swirling around in my head like bees. I asked myself if there are any support structures in place at schools for the young and the talented learners who are showing a lot of academic promise but lag behind when it comes to the basic means of survival. I asked myself about the role of the parents in the education of their children, and how the school can actively participate towards ensuring that these parents play their role not through rhetoric only, but a tangible reality that is subject to follow-ups and evaluation.
I asked myself whether any of her teachers were aware of her background or not, and what they have done about this awareness: the alcoholism that is slowly but surely sapping the energies of her family and making her a strong statistical candidate for spearheading another child-headed family; the abuse that was drastically diverting her focus and has the potential of making her an adult with a hardened heart and a mixed-up scruples; the dilapidated shack that in itself carried the seeds of potential catastrophe…
I asked myself questions about the teacher with the sinister motives, and whether he understands the nature and consequences of his indiscretions…
I asked myself questions about the chances of this bright learner who tries her best to stay motivated despite all. I asked myself questions about her hunger and that of many others like her that makes them treasure a simple burger from a simple food outlet, some of whom will not survive to see their dreams realised.
Then I cried. I cried for every child that goes to an under-resourced, run-down sorry excuse for a school. I cried for every child that tries to rise above all odds in an effort to claim a bread crumb from the table of the affluent that teems with many loaves. I cried for every child that goes to school on an empty stomach. I cried for the president that might never be.
Teacher's Monthly experience
Yoh, what a sad story. As a teacher I can only pat the author on the shoulder and cry with him. One thing odd strikes my mind though…As teachers, are we aware of such learners at our schools? Yes most times we become aware of them and try to assist. Suprisingly only a handful of such learners will grasp the opportunity and still study hard to beat the odds. At my school we still have these grey blankets which these learners refuse to take cose they feel others will laugh at them. Winter season has passed with them stored in the store room. The feeding schemes which provided almost a month’s groceries, deserving learners of such never come when they are called, instead those who are well off are the ones brave enough to come and claim their share.
I personally take in some of these learners esp whn I witness their abilities. There is this one I requested from his parents for 7months staying with me. All I asked of him was to appear in the top Free State 50 to qualify for Grade 12 free bursary. He succeeded and enrolled for Medicine. His fees were all paid up for six years by the Premier. After the 1st two years he became so pick-headed that he was apparently banned from completing medicine anywhere in SA. Just the other day he paid me a visit, found me studying & boldly told me that he is happy he doesn’t wait 31days for a salary he now makes within a day/week, showed me photos of his varsity mates who were now picketing as doctors and was hysterical at the prospect of ever studying for peanuts like I’m doing. I inwardly asked myself what is it wrong that I did in my assistance. Was I wrong to protect this child from hardship? After reading this story I ask myself, what is the correct, most accurate help one can actually provide. Creating comfort so that this learners can concentrate on her studies, isn’t it maybe making her digging shallower, equating the blessing she is gonna receive to a smaller size, which isn’t part of her destiny? With experience…the above scenario becomes a dilemma to me. What is clear though is this child’s protection against all possible abusers. But hardship, is it all that bad, esp if one looks at the present generations with so many opportunities as compared to us who had limited opprtunities but still managed to perform?
Ms Rapudungoane don’t cry with me, as our pity party would probably not achieve much. Join me in the field of battle, I think I can use an extra hand from a soldier who is sold out to the cause of defending the frontiers of this generation’s success…
In this regard, permit me to say a few…well, not really a few….things relating to some of the most vital things you touched on in your response.
On the feeding schemes and the grey blankets…
I’m all for feeding schemes and all those other noble and extraordinary measures that are put in place to make things slightly bearable for the learners, I am also of the view that we cannot shy away from the psychological aspect of the whole thing, which results in the scenario you have painted, whereby the other learners are not “brave” enough to come and collect their groceries.
We further cannot shy away from the reality that the scenario you have painted is induced by the fact that other learners, well off or not, have a penchant of subjecting others to ridicule and cruel taunts and humiliations, and these type of circumstances (feeding schemes, the needs, grey blankets and so forth) provide them with an adequate platform to exercise this penchant with fervour and ferocity.
I would submit in this regard, as I did during my days as the RCL President of a school in Kroonstad, that it’s not alright for the poverty of these learners to be made public information….a blanket approach that brings the poverty and “nakedness” of the learners to the surface and subject them to scrutiny and public ridicule by fellow learners (some of whom would be in similar circumstances but would not dare to disclose such) will not work. It would be in the interests of all if the need such as this is addressed at a very personalized level, on an individual basis. I personally would not want the whole school to know that my teachers have bought me underwear and deodorant and groceries! To this end, it would be appropriate to devise a measure wherein the plight of these learners would be dealt with sensitively without making them feel like charity cases. If needs be, these groceries may even be delivered to their homes or something like that, just to make sure that the need is addressed in the most comfortable way possible, and that the psyche of the learners does not stand in the way of progress.
But I personally would not accept any grey blanket, even if I do not have any other option at all. I wouldn’t even wish them upon any learner….The possibility that it teems with lice and fleas and ticks cannot be ignored. I can even bet a million rands that it doesn’t improve with age either, and neither does it get better even after spending a decade in a washing machine….
On your learner who became pig-headed and dropping out of medical school for reasons unexplained….
It’s a pity that things had to turn out like that, and I know that you know that you had no hand in his “decision” to quit medicine. Nonetheless, people have their own individual choices; some of which we can neither accept nor fathom. Yet they remain their choices. What you wanted was for him to succeed in life: whether this is through medicine or tenderpreneurship is immaterial…unless it was part of the deal that he would become a doctor…..
I always say that once you’ve succeeded in putting somebody through matric and probably the first year of tertiary (because that’s even more challenging than matric and tends to either make or break them); then you’ve done a sterling job. Everything else they can do for themselves and by themselves, because there are still those learners who need you more than a varsity student does.
Irrespective of the challenges we encounter in our endeavour to make it easier for these learners, we cannot afford to be swayed and discouraged by isolated incidents and possibilities that your hard work might come to nothing when it comes to assisting these learners. I always say that if I can only assist one learner out of the entire group, then that’s alright. My mandate is not to save the world, that’s God’s responsibility. All I can do is to address a need within my means when I see it, and that is the bottom line. Imagine how great it would be if every teacher was to see the need and address it; I’m sure it would trickle down to the whole school and probably turn it into an exemplary model of self-sufficience without waiting for departmental handouts which are also not really forthcoming…
I 100% say no to this statement: “Creating comfort so that this learners can concentrate on her studies, isn’t it maybe making her digging shallower, equating the blessing she is gonna receive to a smaller size, which isn’t part of her destiny?”. I’m all for the belief that challenges are the breakfast of champions. But I’m also a realist, and certain levels of hardships are just not acceptable. There is only so much that a person can take. If they manage to survive the hardship, the chances are that it left the scars that are likely to persist for a lifetime. As much as this generation has opportunities as compared to the previous ones, it remains my firm conviction that their challenges cannot be underestimated; they are formidable. We should therefore respond with vigor and vigilance, and refuse to be deterred by either the challenges or the learners themselves. Or even by other teachers who think that we are fighting a losing battle. Every cause carries the promise of reward and the threat of vengeance.
Thank you for your fruitful submissions
Regards
Johnny Modipa