Carl Wheeler

Mid-Pacific Institute – Honolulu (Retired)

Teachers Without Borders – 2006-7

During the two trips that I have made to South Africa under the aegis of Teachers Without Borders, our emphasis has been on working with teachers from some rural areas. In working with these wonderful teachers in our workshops, our hope has been that by empowering them we are helping the education of countless students in these rural schools. Our student contact has therefore been rather second-hand. Until we met Jody.

Jim Metz and I were walking along a road in a small village some kilometers outside of Port St. John’s, when were invited into a home. We met Grace, a lady who made crafts that were sold to tourists, and her cousin, a teacher in Mthatha. Soon we met Jody, Grace’s daughter, who came--in school uniform, of course--from her make-up classes, the result of an extended strike of government workers resulting in the closure of schools. She was preparing for her “matric” exams, success in which is necessary for admission to South African universities.

Jim and I became teachers for a while, as we helped Jody with some tough trigonometry problems. We were “blown away” by this young lady, who had already earned a full-ride scholarship to the South African university of her choice. We were so impressed that we returned the next day to give her a graphing calculator, a device unheard of in rural (or most any) schools in the country.

This experience was probably the high point of our time in South Africa, but we couldn’t help but wonder how many more Jodys there are out there. I suppose we can only hope that what we do in working with teachers can help these teachers to motivate and inspire the Jodys in their classes. The problems facing these teachers are many. We who go to work with them must believe that our small contributions can alleviate some of the problems they face. The Jodys of South Africa represent the future leaders of their country--and Oprah can’t educate them all !!!