‘An unseasonably chilly rain was slicking and polishing the grey concrete etc. etc.’
Actually, the other day a twelfth grade studentess dropped into my little office in the MB. She had never been there as these students spend most of their lesson time and all of their free time in and around the DSC. ‘I don’t see why you were complaining about your view, Mr D. it’s not that bad. I mean you can see quite a large strip of grass as well as the concrete wall!’ Such positivism really cheered me up as it was clear she meant it. Mind you, she was standing up; when you sit down naturally the window sill as horizon raises itself to cover the lower part of the view and bang goes a heap of my grass. But then you see a little bit of sky, she pointed out. But the positive comment, the ‘glass half full’ attitude, had me reflecting on just this remarkable aspect of teenagers. They will fall about in class till 10.00 am, moaning about lack of sleep and the presence of acute hunger. They will allege that they had a boring evening, too, and that they have a maths test for the third week running, a science lab write-up and a humanities essay all due today, rolling their eyes the while with pantomime drama. Having been shown a suitable lack of sympathy in response, however, (‘Go to bed earlier.’ ‘This is a school, you know.’ etc. which is what they really expected in the first place) they charge off at the sight of their friends to play a noisy version of football that seems to entail kicking the ball as hard as possible over the Red Top fence and into the school drive as often as possible within the time available, part of the thrill being, presumably, whether it bounces on the roof of a car. Or they create a rugby scrum like huddle of gossiping that produces both sudden and random screams of laughter and horror, or exaggerated exclamations of total disbelief that threaten to damage the delicate workings of the adult human’s inner ear. No sign of depression, deathly fatigue or near starvation there. Their experience is limited, protected as it should be. Their experience tells them that life will improve dramatically and radically in a moment as it always has and always did.
But there are so many bunches of kids, as we know, in so many environmentally and socially impoverished places on the planet where their far too extensive, negative experience will tell them that life will not get better, that it will most probably get much worse very soon as it tends to, that help and peace and a cessation of pain or fear or hunger are not even worth considering. You know all this as well as I. (I was in Zimbabwe at the end of March for a few days. On the night the rumour spread that the government had been defeated in the elections in this township the elation and relief were infectious. Three weeks later these same joyful people were being hunted down and abused.)
ICS has an unbroken tradition of making a specific difference to the lives of communities and, through sponsorships, to specific children, since the late ‘60s. And grade 9’s programme for the recent IB MYP Areas of Interaction Activity Week continued, improved, and broadened this tradition. The focus was ‘Children at Risk’. But when this other world is introduced to our world, it is essential (and not so easy) not to produce hopeless feelings of guilt or indignation or despair in our students at the size of the situation. A careful programme of information, films, research, creative writing, pod casts and drama as well as the presentation of valid, possible and available ways to make a difference, had been prepared by the relevant staff. The timetable was flexible so that activities were lasting a morning or a day or even 48 hours. The students’ enthusiasm grew rapidly and the quality of perception in their reflections was impressive. Last week, therefore, grade 9’s location was really rather a wonderful place to be.
Friday, 24 October 2008
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