Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Cape Flats teachers are heroes
Countless children and teenagers in need of hope and inspiration
“MA’M, they should write a book called Fifty Shades of Red about our area because of all the blood in our streets.”
One of my 13-year-old learners said this to me matter-offactly, without even flinching. He was referring to the tsunami of murders that have swept through the communities of the Cape Flats, leaving an aftermath of anguish.
Brain splatter and crimson stains streaks our neighbourhood and distort our children’s vision of what “normal” should be.
It’s “crazy normal” because walking past a corpse on your way to school has become business as usual.
I have been teaching at Bel- mor Primary in Hanover Park for almost seven years and while I am savouring every single moment of this journey, I have to acknowledge that the atmospheric conditions of the area undoubtedly has a distressing effect on our learners.
As educators we go all-out, all of the time, to ensure that quality education ensues and also to encourage our learners to super-size their dreams.
Yet, there is not a day that goes by without a harrowing account of gang violence sneaking in to our lessons. We may be smack bang in the middle of teaching a Mathematics or English lesson, when our learners asks if we’ve heard the gunshots or if we know about the unfortunate person who got shot the night before or even on that particular morning.
Carefree playing outside has become a luxury that the Cape Flats kids are not accustomed to anymore and going to the library is like walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
One of the most excruciating and devastating moments of my teaching career was when I stood at the coffin of a former learner. He was a real live wire with the most cheerful disposition and he had just popped in at school a few days prior to his untimely and premature death, to show us his adorable new puppy and to have a catch-up session with his primary school teachers.
We did not know that it would be the last time we would see him alive. I couldn’t get over it for an immensely long time and just when I started coming to terms with his death, another one of his classmates was ruthlessly shot and killed. Neither of them were affiliated to a gang and it was a crushing blow to every teacher.
Despite all the doom and gloom – hope floats. I truly believe that teachers have been called for a time such as this. While Superman, Batman and Spider-Man receive all the credit for being superheroes, in our hearts we shrug it off because we know that real heroes don’t wear capes; we teach.
You see, we are the unsung heroes who put an “S” on our chests and go into our classrooms every day, geared to make our kids come alive despite being surrounded by death.
It may seem as if the zigzag line on the heart machine is flat-lining, but our Cape Flats kids are alive with possibility. As teachers we actually hold more cards that what everyone thinks. We have been called to teach way more than the CAPS curriculum and we are not called to be a zero.
A zero is a number of no influence and that is not who we are. The system out there is one which involves influence by intimidation, but the level of your influence depends on your ability to INSPIRE.
There are countless children and teenagers in dire need of hope and inspiration and when they step into our classrooms or spheres of influence, it is our mission to show them that hope floats, no matter how hopeless things often seem. We should readjust their focus by switching the lens from the predictable future (gang violence, teen pregnancy and high dropout rates) to the preferred future of liberty and limitlessness.
As educators on the Cape Flats, we are tasked with a kaleidoscope of overwhelming social issues and when you shake that kaleidoscope, you’ll find death due to gang violence is the pattern most reflected.
We are assigned to teach children who have a plethora of challenges and, trust me, it’s no easy task. We walk into an explosive environment every day.
This career is not for the faint-hearted because we are the pioneers of our time. We will nudge, push and ensure our children take quantum leaps to dramatically advance because teachers are in the life changing business.
Charnelle Hector is a grade 7 teacher at Belmor Primary in Hanover Park and also lives in the area.