Kimmi learning from contrasts

Prior to leaving Cape Town reach co-educator wrote a paper in response to the following questions: How do you expect the experiences and knowledge gained this semester to influence your future career and life choices?; What have your learned about race and gender that you believe is important for you to know as you strive to become a more well informed global citizen?; What have you learned about yourself that you believe is important for you to know?  

Kimmi has agreed to post her answers as her final entry on this blog.

Over three and a half months I learned a lot through my internship, classes and experiences that I’ve had in South Africa. I expect the experiences and knowledge I gained this semester to influence my future career in many ways. I plan on becoming an elementary school teacher when I grow up. I think that through my internship I was able to learn more about the education system in South Africa and education in general. Here they tend to concentrate on more things such as stretching and doing exercises with the kids to increase their fine and gross motor skills that they do not concentrate on in the states. I have found that my teachers are a lot more open to their students about their private body parts and other topics such as drugs and alcohol. This may be different because of the type of school that Christel House is or may be part of the culture I’m not sure. It has been interesting to compare and contrast how they do things differently in the US versus South Africa though. It seems to me that both schools want to offer the best education to their students and work hard to do that. They just do that in different ways.

In the US they have taken out naptime and instead during that time the students are working hard in the classroom. In the states the teachers tend to push their students harder. I have learned from just observing the class certain techniques that my teacher uses in the classroom. For example, Miss Loren tends to use the students themselves when she is explaining a concept to them. One time she got Joshua (tallest boy in our class) and Sanele (smallest boy in our class) to stand in front of the class. She then asked the class who was taller and who was smaller. She told the class that Joshua was the tallest boy in the class and Sanele was the smallest boy in the class. She was teaching them the concept of small and large. I thought this was a creative and good way to teach it. It got the whole class engaged and the students liked being part of the exercise. Teaching techniques like this I will bring home to me and will use in the future when I am a teacher.

           

Miss Loren also taught me that you can discipline kids in different ways. In most of the classrooms that I have observed in the US the teachers use rewards methods to discipline the children such as the color chart and what not. In South Africa the teachers are stricter with the children and make them sit out or yell at them if they are misbehaving. This is a different approach to discipline and I have learned that both tend to work. At the beginning of the year like most teachers do Miss Loren and other teachers I have seen in the past have to lay down the rules in order for the students to respect them. You also have to be very patient and repetition is key. These are two constant things that I have seen in South Africa and the states that I will bring to my classroom in the future.

I have learned that you have to have a good balance between being too strict and showing your students how much you care and love them. Miss Loren at times will joke around with her kids and play with them. But the kids still know that she is the teacher and respect her as teacher. Whereas with me they seem to be a little bit confused at times see me more as a friend. This has been one of the challenges that I have had to face at Christel House to try to get the kids to respect me and see that I am equivalent to Miss Loren and Miss Alfreeda. I know that this will help me in the future when I become a teacher to learn how to control my class and get respect from my students.

As for life choices I have learned not to judge people just by looking at them. I have learned by living with sixteen other students naturally I formed first impressions and was not a fan of everyone at first. But throughout the three months I have started to get to know them more and more and have learned so much about and from each and every person. I know now that those first impressions I had on some people were not correct therefore I should not judge people just from one encounter with them. I need to take into account that you do not know what is going on within each person. You do not know what anyone is going through so with that knowledge I know that people have off days and significant things happen to people everyday that may shape the way they are acting that day. You cannot judge someone for not doing this or that because that person may just need time for themselves to reflect or may just need to rest because of something that has happened. I have also learned that even though some people may have done bad things like stolen your purse or laptop does not mean that they necessarily are a bad person. You do not know what type of situation they are in. You never know whether they are growing up on the streets and are hungry and have no money. Most of the time people in South Africa will steal because they are hungry and want food so they steal to sell your valuables. Most of the robbers have no intent to hurt you. It has also made me second guess about prisoners as well before I am ashamed at the way I looked at them like they were animals. Now I finally see that they are humans as well some may have something wrong with them but others may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. You need to be more open towards people and be careful not to forget their backgrounds and where they are coming from. I have learned that you need to assume good intent and should not judge right away.

I have also learned that when I grow up I do not want to raise my kids by buying them gender specific toys or telling them not to run like a girl to try to encourage or motivate them to do better. I am going to try to not get the media to affect them and discourage them from trying to look like the people they see on TV or in the movies. I want the best for my kids and I want them to be open to people and different races. I want them to talk to me about race and become knowledgeable about the world and what is going on around us. I was ignorant about many things including race before I came on this trip. I do not want my kids to be ignorant but be aware and then hopefully they will spread the knowledge.

Through class I learned a lot about race and gender that I did not know in the past and other things that I knew already were reinforced. Some things I believe that are important are that racism still exists today! Many people tend to be oblivious to this because many people in the states do not like to talk about racism. I now see that it is important to talk to people about racism. I have learned from Brittany that it is better to recognize race, to see it, acknowledge it, and embrace it. She said that she wanted us to recognize that she was black and see how beautiful it is. She is right we shouldn't be shying away and we shouldn’t be ignoring that the fact that she is black because she is what she is and we should embrace it. Many people when describing others tend to feel awkward when they say she is black or Hispanic but what I have learned is that you shouldn’t because it is equivalent to saying he has brown hair or she has blue eyes. You should feel comfortable enough to recognize it and embrace it. This is important to know as I strive to become a well-informed global citizen because we should all be aware that we are different and celebrate our differences. It is important to know that we come from different backgrounds and each and every one of us is not going to be exactly the same. Many of us may find that we have certain things in common but we need to realize that we also have many differences. As a global citizen we need to make others aware that it is okay to be different. Our culture tends to think we need to be all alike and assimilate but our world would be a whole lot more boring if we were all the same. So why are we all striving to be the same? It beats me. But I know now that we need to learn to be open to talking to people about race and other differences and should embrace it and celebrate it instead of put others down for being or acting differently.

I have also learned that knowledge is key. Many do not know their basic human rights and do not realize that their human rights are being violated. All over the world we have this problem. I think it is important as a global citizen to make more and more people aware of their rights and encourage them to spread the knowledge. It is also important to recognize when others or your own rights are being violated and to do something about it. At times many people tend to just let it slip on by when they are being violated. In this sense we need to give others the knowledge so they will not be afraid to stand up for their rights. I know that I was guilty of letting things slip on by but now that I have the knowledge and know what my rights I will not let them slip again. I think by making others knowledgeable and giving them that confidence they need and this will help to get more and more people to stand up and work together to prevent others from violating human rights. I see now that every little bit counts and doing little things like that will make an impact. You need to start somewhere so this is where we can start by speaking up and saying something.

To be honest talking about myself and what I have learned on this trip is one of the hardest questions to answer. From being in South Africa I have learned that in the US the society and also my family has tended to put a lot of pressure on me to succeed and do well in school. I have always been put under pressure to get good grades and to make money since I was little. I got a job as soon as I was legal to work even a year younger (shh don’t tell). Society makes you think in a way that the only way you can be happy is if you have money and are able to buy and do nice things. What I have learned here is that is not where happiness comes from. I have learned that I have found joy by hiking, getting to know and hanging out with other people. I have learned about myself that I am very passionate about kids and love them to death. Kids are really what make me most happy. I will do anything for my Grade R kids and Ocean View kids. I have realized that this is why I want to become a teacher. I also really want to make an impact and want the kids to look back and remember me and hopefully what I have done has given them motivation to want to succeed and continue to study. After our last trip and tutoring session at Ocean View I have realized that I have made an impact on these kids. All the kids at Ocean View after were given the opportunity to write on the back of our certificates. The little boy I tutored and was close to, A-Jay, ended up writing that he loved me a lot and that he hoped that I loved him to. He said not to forget about him. This really hit me because I was worried this whole time that he would be the one forgetting about me. But in the end he was the one worrying that I would forget about him. He has improved so much and I have realized that I have impacted his life even if it is in a little way. I have motivated him to do well in school and now he is getting 90% in maths! I am so proud of him and cannot wait to keep in touch with him. I have realized that the same things in life that I may have not paid much attention to or thought did anything really do make a difference. Just by taking a few hours a week out of my time to go to Ocean View everyday Friday has helped these kids and has given them the confidence to succeed and do well. I am proud of each and every one of them. I have learned that I do have the power within me to help and tutor these kids. I am nurturing and caring and clearly it has showed through this tutoring but also at Christel House.

In the past I have had a hard time with confronting people and saying no. But now that I am in South Africa I have come a long way and actually have been confronting people about certain things that have been bothering me. I have learned to stand up for myself more and not let others take advantage of me. I have learned that at times I have been too nice and have grown to overcome confrontation and actually speak up. I have learned that now I have the knowledge to say something about race or when people’s rights are being violated.

I have learned that in the past I did tend to judge people and not like people because of the way that they acted towards me at first or how they looked. Now I realized how stupid that was because I was judging them before I even knew the. I have also learned that I tended to judge people I knew because they were mean to me or did not do this or that. Now I have realized that was stupid as well because I do not always know what people are going through. I cannot judge people because of one day they were in a bad mood.

I have also learned that I can empathize and sympathize with people. This was reinforced when I was tutoring the kids in Ocean View, my Grade R class and also conversations and instances I’ve had with people in the house. This is one quality that I know I have and always have had and I continue to keep it. I think it is a very important quality to have because it is easier to relate with others when I know what they are going through or can talk to them. I always try to be as approachable as possible and like it when people talk to me and vent to me. I like to be as helpful as possible. I have realized that at times I want to do everything and tend to overcommit. So here I have realized that I cannot and should prioritize things first. I cannot do everything or else I tend to get overwhelmed. So in the future I plan to do the things that are most important to me. I know that if I try to do everything I get too stressed out and tend to break down. This has shown me that I do need to set apart time for myself so that I can reflect and relax and gather my thoughts. I tend to be go go go all the time but I need to make time for myself and put myself first sometimes.