Solar Baby
I was a privileged child. I played with the sun or rather, the sun played with me. I’ll move around the little yard and it was right there with me. I would go indoors and come out after a minute or so, to find the sun waiting for me.
I was greatly disappointed when I grew and the Geography teacher told us the sun is round, and that there is only one sun. It was like popping balloons with a needle after a birthday party. The sun follows everybody not just me. It’s an experience I used later when I became a teacher. Kids are not empty vessels. They know something, but is difficult for teachers to extract, for many reasons.
In some public schools, classes can be 20-30 kids. Therefore, it’s impossible for teachers to talk to them individually. Secondly, teachers have instructions from the School Board or Education Minister to teach certain subjects in a particular fashion. Certain outcomes must be achieved. But where do you slot my childhood infatuation with the sun? Which box is the perfect subject box?
Individual student attention is usually impossible in public schools. That’s why the internet succeeds in luring away some kids permanently, because of their phones and other digital devices. They get full attention from these machines. This results in something schools call ‘unaccounted for’ students. Lost forever to the murky world of the internet.
Nonqaba waka Msimang
Executive Blogger
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