The program consisted of lectures at universities, as well as interaction with students from 6th to 11th grade. The trip was completely funded by NEH, including a $1,000 stipend for miscellaneous expenses.
The majority of program participants were high school teachers. Lee was one of two middle school English teachers. The group met in Memphis, flew to Capetown, and spent one week there adjusting to the lifestyle. They had numerous lectures at the University of Western Cape on South African literary figures, for which they had prepared by completing an extensive reading list.
The group proceeded, charting a loop approximating the perimeter of the country. They stayed in backpackers’ lodges, rinky-dink hotels, farms and other inexpensive lodging options.
When asked to write on his application essay what he wanted out of the experience, Lee said that he wanted one book, one piece of poetry or short story that he could bring back to his classroom and communicate it to his students. He got that and much more.
He is now looking into using in his classroom a work called “Kaffir Boy” by Mark Mathabane; plays by Athol Fugard and “The Smell of Apples” by Mark Behr. He collected most of the works from his attendence at the Grahmstown Art Festival at Rhodes University on his trip.
Lee flew to South Africa with his bundle of preconceived notions about third world countries — the overwhelming crime, the immense poverty level, the sad state of the AIDS epidemic. But after stepping into the culture and seeing it for himself, Lee sees the country in a different light. South Africa is so much more than those conditions, he said.
Lee has just returned from his trip and recently sat down with the Daily Press to share his experiences in the ‘rainbow nation.’
What were the amenities like as far as running water, electricity, etc?
“Usually all the places we went had running water, although there were a couple where they told us, ‘You don’t want to drink the water.’ There were a couple of places where we stayed at, like Johannesburg, where the electricity went out a bunch... I remember once we were out to eat at night, and the power went out a bunch of times, and the for locals that was part of what happened (normally), and we were all like, ‘Ooh — what’s happening here?’ But people just went on with their business; I mean it didn’t faze them. So we got used to it.”
How did the theme, “South Africa – continuity and change” show up in your lectures?
“Our lectures were fascinating. Each professor was from a different department, like we had a couple professors from the department of English, then we had some from the department of economics, from history, from art, from music... Each of them would be maybe an hour to an hour and a half presentation, lecture, Socratic seminar or discussion, and a lot of them told us that what they taught (to us) in an hour and a half is what they taught in a semester course. So they had to really condense and shrink it all down so that they could just give us a little inkling as to what South African literature is about.
“And they try to connect everything to change and continuity, and how ‘OK, what about this music is bringing about change?’ So we had a music professor talk about how there’s a shift now in the music culture, and how there’s a type of music called the quoit-zo music which is sort of the young people’s music of how they’re uprising and they want freedom and peace and equality and justice. It was really nice how they could not only tell us a little bit about their expertise, but also connect that to how it’s bringing in the new South Africa.”
What were your favorite places? “Probably the most beautiful of all the places that I can remember, or the first place that comes to mind, is the Drackenburg Mountains, which is right on the border with Lesotho, and it’s the most majestic and idyllic and peaceful and beautiful moun-tainscape I’ve ever seen, and it’s sort of out in the middle of nowhere. It is so beautiful and lush, and just the grandeur of that landscape is something I’ll never forget, and there were waterfalls and hiking trails and baboons.
“People-wise I would say Grahmstown, because that was the time when I got to talk to the most people, because usually when we’re on the road, there wasn’t too much time for us to interact with the local people. Because it’s like you’re on the bus, you go to the university and lectures, seminars and maybe a museum, and that’s it. If you’re at a museum, you can’t really talk to locals there because they’re all tourists anyway.
“When we were in Grahmstown for that arts festival, it was tremendous because we stayed at Rhodes University and I got to talk to a bunch of university students. Once, I stayed up until 1 in the morning, talking to four university students, and it was tremendous because they were so open to sharing about their culture, how they grew up, the languages they spoke, what they read. I really wanted to know what texts they studied when they were growing up in middle school and high school so they talked about that. And just walking around Grahmstown talking to the artists, performers, actors, screenwriters, that was probably the time that I got the most culturally from South Africa.”
On that note, what’s the education system like there?
“It’s different. I would say one of the sad-dest things about South Africa is the segregation of the languages, because when you grow up... let’s say you’re Xhosa, they stop teaching you in your native tongue around early elementary, like around first, second, third grade. They ask you to choose if you want to learn English or you want to learn Afrikaans, and that’s it. It’s sad how they lose that part of their culture and they’re forced to learn a different language. It’s sort of like if you’re Hispanic/Latino, if you’re Asian or whatever, and then in early elementary they say, ‘It’s over; you’re only going to learn this or that language.’
“If you’re living in a township, you don’t get equal access to education, because parents have to pay a fee to put their kid in school. It’s a public school, but they have to pay a fee. The fee ranges from not-too-much to extravagant, and if the parents can’t afford rent for their homes, they can’t afford large enrollment fees for their kids to go to school. I remember one school we went to, that day, it was a middle school, nine teachers had called in absent, and they don’t have substitutes and if the teacher’s not there, they just put you in a quad area, and that’s it. And that just shows how there’s not funding. They rarely have any electives at all, and there’s a minority of women going up into school as well, and a lot of them drop out in high school too, they were saying, because of the girls having children, and that’s connected to the whole AIDS epidemic over there as well.
It’s all interconnected with a lack of funds, lack of jobs, lack of income, lack of schools — there’s just not enough schools.”
What determines the range of school fees?
“I guess the location of the schools and the funding of the schools themselves, because if the school’s located in a really destitute township … if they charge a really low fee for admittance, their money bubble isn’t as much so they can’t afford that many renovations. The hiring of teachers is another issue. A lot of them can’t attract qualified teachers, so it’s sort of a lose/lose situation, because their enrollment is pretty low, but it’s sort of paralleled with their low-skilled teachers as well. The schools that are renowned and are elite schools, they charge an extreme amount of money and they cater more to the white population.”
What ideas did the South Africans have about the U.S.?
“The middle school kids that we got to talk to, they have a very fantastical notion of the U.S., where they think we’re some kind of perfect society, like they think, ‘Oh, nothing could go wrong in the U.S. — you guys are rich, and you guys are one of the superpowers in the whole world, and there’s nothing wrong with the U.S.’ and I had to dispel them of that idea real fast. I’m like, ‘Listen, kids, the U.S. may not be a third world nation, but we are definitely not immune to racism, prejudice, discrimination.’ Like we had a teacher from Mississippi (on the trip), and she was saying how her school is all black, and it’s so segregated, and you walk across the tracks and it’s an all-white school.”
What do you see as the biggest challenges to the teachers there?
“Talking to the teachers there, it’s unbelievable how talented they are, and how they’re able to survive even though they have so few resources. A lot of the classrooms were inside squatter shack bungalows. They were lucky if they had light, or if they had a chalkboard, or if they had heat, or if they had textbooks. A lot of them were telling me they want to teach stuff, but they don’t have the books and they don’t have anthologies. They don’t have the publishers coming to them giving them books because their school can’t afford it.
“Yet, they’re able to make due — this one teacher told me how she was able to, with her own money, Xerox (materials) for the kids. It was quite tremendous, I think, how they were able to remain so optimistic. But I think, talking to some of them, they had to be, because if they weren’t then how would the kids even survive in the school. So they had to be the rock and the stone and the foundation for the kids and show them that it’s OK.”
Why was that site so meaningful to you? “It’s the teachers, it’s the educators, it’s the administrators that all form together to build that culture of their school, and in that school you could tell it was so infused within their school, it was like,‘OK, yes, our town might be poor and poverty stricken, and we might not have any money or running water or electricity, but you know what, when we step inside this school, this is our chance to really learn and show our teachers and whoever else we meet that, you know what, we could do well in school, and I’m going to be able to make it to try to get into the university. This is our foundation. You know what, let’s focus our attention on here, forget about anything else that might be bothering us, we just sort of leave that at the doorstep. When we step in, this is class, let’s get down to business. And you know what, we really need to do this, because if we don’t, what’s left?”
How are you going to apply that experience into the classroom here?
“I think it’s always different. Like I tell the kids, it’s one thing to read about something, to read it in a textbook, to read it on paper, or to see on a photograph, online, or on the web, there’s a difference between that and actually living it, breathing it, stepping into that environment, into that soil.
“I always like to bring some sort of ownership to the learning, whatever connection I can make to whatever we’re reading and the same thing with them, if they have any ownership to whatever we’re studying. I think with this, for me to teach something well, I have to really own it, and I knew I couldn’t teach about South African literature, although I really wanted to, I felt like I couldn’t just out of the blue say, ‘OK, we’re going to learn about Athol Fugar,’ because if I do that, I don’t have any ownership.
“At least with this experience, let alone it being really short, at least I’ve got something where I could share with the kids,‘OK, this is something that I can own.’ And if I own it, the kids can usually sense it, like I can be more enthusiastic or passionate about it. Where as if it’s ‘Oh, let’s just do this,’ I’m more detached.
“I tell the kids all the time, ‘You need to own this. Own your essay, own your short story, own your poem, own your learning. It’s all about ownership, and learning for learning’s sake, and they can’t do that unless I can help them along in that process. To bring it into fruition and creation for them I think is important, especially with middle school kids.
“One school — West Bank High School — one English teacher, we set up this letter exchange between her students and my students. When school starts, I’m going to use those to frontload our new South African unit. It’s almost like a pen pal, but we’re going to try to do it more as to literature based, like ‘Oh, this is what we’re reading. Have you read this? This is what we think this story is about,’ and then they’re going to read the same thing.”
What made you want to teach Eighth grade?
“I like their enthusiasm and the energy and they’re not as... jaded, maybe? They’re smart, but they’re still young and impressionable. I just thrive, I really feed off the energy and enthusiasm; I just love it. It keeps me entertained. I mean, they crack me up everyday, and I learn everyday from them, too.”
Why do you teach? “Oh, it’s the kids. We do it for the kids. What makes my day, every day, is if I can just see one kid, just one, really get something, something really snaps, really clicks in them, that I can see it happen. It can be something really subtle, it could be like that little ‘Aha!’ moment that I see happening there.”
Can you imagine yourself teaching in South Africa?
“I would definitely look into doing a year program teaching abroad there. That would sound very appealing to me.”
What do you like about Santa Monica? “It’s so mellow and calm and peaceful, and the people are just relaxed, and there’s no real tension or hustle-bustle. The beach is there, the ocean... the people are warm and friendly and kind, my colleagues are tremendous, they’re so smart. I knew I would always come back and live here. I’d like to travel to other places, but I think I’d always call Santa Monica my home.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 21, 2006. Read the original PDF.