Human Rights Weekend

After a Saturday that started with a nice group hike up onto Table Mountain, my Sunday involved heading downtown to join the Human Rights Day rally and march for school libraries. It was awesome to be among over 10,000 students marching, singing, dancing, and chanting for a library and a librarian in every school. According to one of the speakers, only 8% of public schools in South Africa have libraries. That certainly fits with what I've seen in the schools I've visited; libraries are uncommon (at least in the under-resourced schools), and well-stocked, staffed ones are quite rare. The protest was coordinated by Equal Education, a relatively new (2008) organization that "advocates for quality and equality in the South African education system and engages in evidence-based activism for improving all of the nation’s schools." A highlight was running into the delegation from the Hector Petersen school, including one of the learners we worked with in 2008.

I stayed downtown for the afternoon - I browsed a bookstore, changed a flat bike tire, and ate a late lunch with the Man-U/Liverpool game on in the background. I was hanging around to catch the 6:00 p.m. screening of "Streetball," the documentary about South Africa's Homeless World Cup team. It was great, and the team, its coaches, and the filmmakers were all present. (I hope to schedule a mini-tournament with them as practice for the UCT team.) The screening was part of the Cape Winelands Film Festival, and it happened in the planetarium, part of a museum complex on "the Company's Grounds." This site, named for the Dutch East India Company who oversaw it until going bankrupt in the 1790's, has been a park since 1848. It includes a botanical garden, the Houses of Parliament, and St. George's Cathedral - all in the heart of the city! This weekend, the Grounds hosted the annual Cape Town Festival. This celebration of the city's diversity, with its slogan "One City, Many Cultures," made a great place to hear some music and get more food while waiting for the movie. With the "Taste of Cape Town" opening tomorrow evening, the end-of-summer celebrations appear to be in full swing!

On the work front... This week I'm back at Fezeka doing some demonstration teaching and putting on a workshop on "group learning strategies" for the social studies teachers. Today I taught a lesson on population distribution to grade 10 Geography students. I had a room with an interactive white board for two classes, and in between I taught a class in a room with just a chalkboard and no electricity - and over 40 students! Here, as anywhere, smaller classes - and consistent technology! - would sure help facilitate greater student engagement and more interactive teaching! The most "functional" schools here have both.



Other recent school visits have included: "International Day" at the American International School, a cultural performance evening and a Human Rights Day assembly at a public girls' school, and a tour of an ambitious recycling program at "the oldest school in South Africa," an all-boys public school. I also got to accompany 75 learners on a field trip out to "GIS Week," an annual event hosted by the Geography Department at the University of the Western Cape.