Before 1994 different education departments took charge of different groups of educators. I, as a coloured educator taught only in schools attached to the Department for Coloured Education. I did not teach in schools of other groups. After 1994 I could teach in any school of my choice. I continued teaching at the same school Parkwood Primary until I retired on 28 February 2005.
After teacher training the first few years of teaching did not go as well as I thought it would. At college I could rely on help and structures in place that supported my self - confidence. After completing teacher training, I felt confident, eager and ready to teach, but when I stepped into the first classroom with forty odd children, my feelings changed to uncertainty and helplessness.
Teaching for me then was more of a learning curve, with ups and downs along the way. I became aware that it was not only about teaching knowledge, but that each child needed to grow and develop within a teaching and learning environment. It was not just about academics for the child to grow and develop, but the spiritual, social, physical, emotional and psychological side was important too. This realisation enriched my understanding that each child in front of me was a unique human being created by God, and should be nurtured as such.
Considering my training and teaching experiences, I could reflect on good and bad memories as well as my teaching contributions. Due to a different perception of what education was all about, a love and passion attitude became part of me, which enhanced the education I could offer to become more valuable. I was concerned and focused on the children who were put in my charge year after year. The homely atmosphere and my motherly attitude which was highlighted in my inspector reports as well as my mother’s silent influence in the background helped a great deal towards a tranquil classroom environment. The exemplary discipline of the community and their way of life at that time, paved the way for me to teach constructively and productively. Interactions between the children and I took the form of conversations, playing games, discussions, brainstorming, mind mapping, actively doing things and having fun in various ways and much more. Such an atmosphere profoundly prevailed in schools where I taught in Cape Town before 1994. After retiring from teaching I realised that my teaching legacy came about because of my conscious efforts of hard work and a positive attitude.
At the end of each school day I could reflect with certainty on how far each child progressed, and where I needed to consolidate or continue the next day. To promote this I came down to the child’s level, sometimes in a physical way such as kneeling down on the mat to have better eye contact and to connect withtheir personalities and abilities.
For me the teaching and learning situation in South Africa impacted my life positively in the classroom. I could in my own capacity manage and overcome various problems which arose. Personally, I did not allow the issues outside the school to be influential inside the classroom. The education department before 1994 supported me with all necessities in all areas of teaching and learning in the classroom, and this prompted a mind-set and attitude towards a passion for teaching and learning within me. I realised this of what was reported to me by the inspectors and advisers, as well as the silent influence then, of my late mother.
I was able to teach in an undisturbed environment. Attendance was exemplary up to the last day of each term. Teaching continued from the first to the last day of each term. There were hardly any interferences and time wasted. I could develop and improve my own teaching strategies and methods freely and steadily.
These factors aided class and group teaching as well as individual tuition. Parents portrayed commitment to their children’s wellbeing and upbringing. Thus, the way of life then made it possible for me to remain focussed on such a noble profession.
I was not compelled nor bound to teach in a prescribed way, as long as I offered constructive and productive teaching and learning that supported each child’s ability to develop and grow. Various teaching styles were spontaneously slotted in where the need arose, such as incidental teaching fitting in with a specific way of life or an incident. Where needed this method was natural in my style of teaching. It usually happened within discussions, brainstorming and mind mapping. It was not noted in my lesson plan or prescribed beforehand, as it was a natural inclusion in the teaching and learning process. This advantage helped the children to perceive and simultaneously understand certain portions of knowledge far better, because it happened in his or her space, or immediate environment. My inherent teaching skills were tested when incorporating an incidental situation on the spur of the moment leading to positive results. I believed this was teaching not only from the mind but also from the heart. A display of various methods, strategies and styles developed naturally within certain teaching and learning structures.
When I taught a concept I did not continue to the next stage until the previous one was understood and consolidated in certain teaching situations, by the whole class, groups and individual children. Various teaching styles were profound which allowed constant development according to abilities. Teaching and learning was not restricted to time frames as long as the children reached their potential levels based on individual benchmarks, for a pass to the next standard.
For every subject I was provided with the necessary teacher guide. Although I was trained to teach all the subjects, it was still helpful to have a teacher guide at hand. Alongside research it improved my understanding and certainty of what and how to teach. The entire teaching layout allowed me to be comfortable and confident of where I was, where I am and where I am going.
In the early sixties the Group Areas Act came into operation where specified groups of people were placed apart by means of artificial boundaries. This mechanism became operational causing teaching to happen in shifts to accommodate an overflow of children who were of school going age. I with another teacher shared one classroom to teach our respective classes. This was a challenge because two class groups of the same standard had to share one classroom, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Teaching of these classes rotated from morning to afternoon and vice versa, at specific times of the school calendar, to be fair to every class. My understanding of this arrangement was to allow all children of school going age to be in classrooms, because there were enough teachers to teach, but not enough classrooms available. The afternoon shift was fairly difficult, because the children were not so attentive but rather tired, compared to the morning shift.
I had to be well organised when I taught the content in a shorter time. I had to organise and strategize in such a way, so as to cover the most important facts of each subject. A more teaching and learning focus was placed on Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, known as the three R’s because of shorter teaching times in each shift. At this point I also became aware and realised that I needed to teach differently within and across subjects. I integrated the language aspects within the first language subject, then across the content and context of other subjects and in so doing the teaching and learning of the three R’s could happen. The two classes used the same teacher aids and apparatus. Good management and organisation was paramount between the other teacher and me. It called for the two of us to hold a good relationship so that we could maintain constructive and productive teaching.
My personal appearance and how I conducted myself inside and outside the classroom was paramount. Facial and bodily expressions, posture and bodily movements, when demonstrating a concept or situation was necessary and critical. This enhanced perception of life situations, concepts and knowledge. My supportive teaching in grasping knowledge and becoming skilled, with a good portion of my love and passion, often enhanced positive outcomes. I came to realise that children should not only acquire knowledge as this for me was not a whole. Continually recalling my collegestudies and training I remembered that comprehension and insight in teaching and learning derived from words such as “What” for knowledge, “How” for the way to do it, and “Why” for the reason, were critical in learning processes. These criteria which I applied enabled comprehensive teaching and learning to happen. It surely helped learning to move to a better level.
Although the syllabus only provided knowledge, I had scope to wisely and naturally enrich, design and strengthen teaching processes with different strategies, styles, methods and skills. This opened the way to broaden teaching and learning.
As far as I knew, it was only females who normally taught in the Junior Primary during my teaching years. I did not come across males teaching in these classes at all the schools where I taught.
As my teaching progressed throughout the years I became sure that the Junior Primary was extremely important and critical for a specific foundation to be thorough and solid for each child. Such a foundation could only enhance future learning. If I now reflect from where I progressed, I can emphatically profess that teaching and learning in this education era in every class I taught, produced quality education. In the Junior Primary many children according to their abilities could reach their potentials, and this for me was rewarding. It really paved the way in readiness for further positive learning.
After 1994 I looked forward to new things about to happen, but as the years moved on I really became disillusioned at the rapid downward trend of the quality of education year by year, especially at Parkwood Primary School in Parkwood Estate, where I taught. It was an uphill battle to solve deeply concerning problems in the areas of discipline, community input, overloaded curriculums and tasks (tests) per term, as well as incomplete teaching and learning processes.
When the 1994 democratic elections were completed we had freedom of movement, and the Subject Adviser of the time arranged workshops at various schools with whom we never connected before 1994. I thendiscovered how the other schools on the other side of the artificial boundaries functioned.
Shortly after the first democratic voting took place in 1994 I with the adviser and my fellow teachers visited Zwaanswyk Primary now renamed Zwaanswyk Academy. We were amazed when entering through a glass door, the beautiful foyer displaying what the school stood for in a glass cabinet and the dark wood wall panelled hall. When we entered the then Junior Primary classes Sub A, Sub B and Std.1 I was amazed at what I viewed. All learning materials, apparatus, stationary, writing books, text books, wallcharts, syllabus, lesson plans and more displayed in those classrooms, were in mine and my fellow colleagues’ classrooms as well. The area where we fell short was the infrastructure such as a hall, swimming pool etcetera.
Teaching and learning was not what I thought it to be. It was years of a rude awakening, which left me dismayed and disheartened. It felt as if I was pushed over the edge and struggled to find my footing. I could not, for the life of me fathom the deterioration of quality teaching and learning. I was dumbfounded because I knew education to be the backbone of eachperson’s.
I was present in the classroom with the intention to teach, but with all the interferences and obstacles, practically on a daily basis, I could not do justice to such a profession. Much teaching time was taken up by children eating meals during lesson times. Outside manufacturing companies of various products presented shows through storytelling, acting, poetry, dancing and drama, which sometimes did not relate to lessons prepared and to be taught for that specific day.
My solution to such an arrangement would have been for such a presentation to happen outside stipulated teaching and learning time. When I went home at the end of such a teaching day, I was extremely frustrated due to the planned teaching that had to take place, but did not. This gave way to helplessness and despair, but I did not lie down. My past ideas, suggestions and experiences before 1994 came into play. I can emphatically state that my own compiled and designed strategies, programmes, formulas and methods, tried and tested, stood me and the children in good stead. At every opportunity that came my way, I made mention of the difficulties I experienced to my immediate and departmental seniors especially in the area of teaching in relation to assessment which to me was not realistic, but to no avail.
During my teacher training I became aware that a child could only mentally absorb a certain portion of knowledge at a time. If started from the very beginning and adding on, depending on the child’s ability and pace, the knowledge would continually expand as quality perception and comprehension prevailed. This reality became evident to me in all my teachings throughout my career.
I was and am still of the opinion that the basics should never become invisible throughout each child’s teaching and learning years. Based on my experience I did and still do maintain that the basic aspects of a language, being used as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT), should always be consciously in sight in processes of various subjects, inherently growing from the simpler towards the more mature concepts and content matter. This would continually enable reflection of “Where I was”, “where I am” and “where I am going”. Based on my experiences of this teaching style, I did and still do vouch that healthy and positive teaching and learning would prevail.