Neil is the son of Tanya and Herman who own The Hippo, the hostel where we're staying. Neil is eight years old and decided that two of us should visit his school and teach a lesson. He talked with his art teacher who then wrote us a letter welcoming us to come. On Monday, Sandy (a professor at Pratt) and I went to his school. The boys wear the cutest uniforms--suit jackets, ties, beanies and shorts with knee-socks!
The school was beautiful with courtyards and gleaming wood and gorgeous archways. It was a stark contrast to Sivuyiseni which can't even supply the students with panes of glass for the windows. And both schools are public!
We met Mrs. Wilson who teaches Art at Grey Junior and she let us observe her first class as she taught them color mixing. I felt like I was watching Harry Potter as these kids and their accents and uniforms are incredibly adorable. When Neil's class came in, Sandy and I taught them a lesson on portraits using oil pastels.
These portraits will then go with Sandy to her school where she'll begin an exchange with Mrs. Wilson. She'll have her students back in New Rochelle do the same lesson and their projects will be sent back here to Port Elizabeth.
When the boys left the classroom, they were dismissed three at a time and each of them said, "Good Morning and thank you ma'ams!" SO ADORABLE!!!
2 comments:
I love the description of the kids and hate the description of the disparity in "public" school facilities! Bravo on the artisitc exchange program - what a great plan.
It must be really hard to see those sorts of differences in the public school system. I can't imagine the sort of outrage there would be here if there was a disparity like that.
Is the divide completely along racial lines?
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