Teachers Without Borders – South Africa 2004
James Metz – University of Hawaii – KCC – Mathematics

Teachers Without Borders South Africa has provided me with an opportunity for personal and professional development unlike any other. This is grassroots at its best. For me, the beauty of the project is that we have immediate access to the students and teachers. On the first day Yunus Peer, director and founder of TWB-SA, spent ten minutes introducing us and telling the students their room assignments and we were off and running. We had the students working math problems immediately. There were no distractions and no delays, just focused attention to the business at hand, learning mathematics.

Can you imagine your students singing to you to start class? We were nearly brought to tears before we even began. When we met with the teachers we distributed some problem sheets we had created based on topics the teachers had identified earlier and relayed to us before our arrival. We attacked the problems together. The teachers were most eager to demonstrate their solutions to the class. I saw many new and clever solutions to several problems and especially enjoyed their engaging presentations. Everyone was totally focused all the time. We often had to ask them more than once to take a break or go to lunch because they just wanted to keep working. I was amazed! As facilitators, we just needed to keep presenting them with more challenges. The interest and enthusiasm was there in abundance. Within minutes they could sense that we were their colleagues, sitting with them, listening, asking and answering questions of each other. We were not “experts” telling them what to do. We quickly realized they had rich mathematical backgrounds and they all seemed to enjoy teaching mathematics. The teachers were bright, curious and so eager to learn new ways. We shared our techniques and had them to share theirs. The classroom dynamic was so engaging, synergetic. I truly cannot remember so many consecutive days of feeling wonderful about teaching. This is what teaching is about. At the end of every week I felt a real loss that we had to leave them. I felt like they were more than my classmates. They were my friends and we had had a wonderful adventure together. We delighted in each other’s company. The warmth and kindness of these people who had been so oppressed was simply overwhelming. I felt so appreciated.

On our final day in Umtata, local teacher named Sizwe expressed the experience so well, “Of course we loved this,” he said, ” we all speak the same language ­ maths and science.” Other teachers spoke with such enthusiasm and joy. One said, “I can’t wait to get back to my classroom and try some of these things!” All of us on the Hawaii team felt most gratified and humbled by our experience. These are truly noble people doing a noble job and we are honored to have been a part of their mission. The enthusiasm of the teachers was phenomenal. Any administrator would have been proud to witness these teachers working so diligently. They gave up a week of their short three-week winter vacation, traveled long distances (some up to 3 hours travel each day!), were paid nothing, and worked incredibly hard for 7 hours each day. Their students are so fortunate to have such dedicated teachers.

I was doubly gifted this year because I was able to team teach with one of the finest math teachers anywhere, a real master teacher, Mr. Jim Clarke of Punahou Academy, one of the top schools in America. I learned so much from him. I admired how he was able to know when the class needed one more problem, or whether they were ready for the next concept. He is brilliant. He knows how to pose a problem and allow students the time to think and to experience the joy of “getting it.” Watching him work with the teachers, I could sense where he was heading with an idea, and I could just sit back and watch the magic happen. He could bring teachers right to the edge, really stretch them, and then pause and let them feel comfortable enough to push forward. Absolutely beautiful. His example caused me to do a better job when I was in charge. Golf has Tiger Woods, we had Jim Clarke. This was truly an unexpected gift in my summer in South Africa.

One of my most memorable experiences this summer was finding myself explaining trigonometry to a class of 300 students. What made the experience special was when I invited a young man to come forward with his demonstration of the simplification of a complex trig identity. He braved the intense scrutiny of his peers as he confidently explained his method. When he successfully concluded, the auditorium erupted in enthusiastic cheers! He beamed a smile I can never forget. I was elated that he had had this experience. Teaching is about creating these moments for others.

I was inspired by the professionalism of our group. I was indeed proud to belong to this elite team of Jim Clarke, Yukio Hamada, Jennifer Hong, Joan Rohrback, and Erin Wilson. They are wonderful companions and their passion for teaching is matched only by their passion for life. They are all deeply caring people.

Words cannot express the gratitude I have for all the people who helped create this grand experience. So many people did so much to make things so comfortable for us so all we had to do was concentrate on making our workshops the best we could. We had no concerns except how to deliver the goods to the students and teachers. Any success we had is in large part due to the many people who took care of the thousands of little and big things that had to happen before we walked into the classroom: the Peer Family – our beloved Yunus, who so effectively organized and directed the adventure; his brother Gora, our delightful companion and van driver; Gora’s caring family who hosted us for a week in Port Shepstone; Yunus’s high school friend Razvi and his wonderful family; inspiring Speaker of the House, Yunus Chamda, who supported us in so many ways; charming Pauline Duncan who managed the Port Shepstone workshops; warm-hearted Nomonde, math curriculum advisor in our favorite place, Umtata, and about a hundred other fine souls who found themselves doing something to help us along the way.

One of my regrets in life is that this experience has happened late in my career. I wonder how much better a teacher I might have been had this happened earlier. I console myself knowing that perhaps until now I could not have given what I gave. I have been given gifts that I will share with my students. I also feel that I have planted something that will grow. As Speaker Chamda said so well, “The future will not remember their names, but it will surely recall the good these teachers have done.”