Passing the grade

Did you know that in South Africa, a passing grade is a 40%? I was shocked to hear this. According to the people I've spoken to, the government has lowered the school standards in order to have more students graduating from high school. Even with these standards, there are still schools that have a 0% pass rate in the province of Limpopo. As in many things, the education system in South Africa seems to suffer from huge disparities. Some schools, especially in the highly populated areas of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban have the best education you could ask for. Others, specifically the public schools in rural areas, have 80 students to a classroom and very poor education.

At Pfunanane Academy, we often get children from these rural schools. We have children entering grade 5 or 6, unable to read or count. The majority of these students are very eager to learn, but have not had the instruction needed to grow. At Pfunanane, we try to keep the teacher/student ratio under 25 students to a teacher. Many classes are much less than that. This helps us to really work with our kids, especially those who transferred in and are struggling to keep up. We've raised our expectations and our students have showed us that they can not just pass school, but excel in it.

My grade 6 students are eager to learn and really fun to have in class. They never want to miss school and even come when they're sick. One day this term, I was sick and stayed home. I sent down homework for them to do, but even so my entire class came up to visit me at break time. They asked me to please come down and teach them. Precious!

This term we've focused on gaining more of a passion for learning and striving for excellence. This class studied so hard, with the brightest students tutoring the slower learners. They set a goal of a 70% class average, and in many subjects, they did better than that. This term coming up, they've set goals to tutor younger grades and to raise the class average. I'm so proud of their accomplishments!

Growing into his name...

At 7 years old, Happy is the youngest child in the children's home. When he first came to the home, Happy suffered from depression and cried daily to go home. He was scared to be away from the home he always knew and struggled to interact with others, especially adults. As we don't know exactly who Happy's mother is, we're not sure if he's an orphan or not. We do know, however, that his family does not want the burden of taking care of a child living with HIV.

Most children, when hurt or sad, run instinctively to an adult for hugs and comfort. Happy, however, will sit alone and cry silently, not wanting to draw attention to himself. This weekend, Happy fell into one of his sad spells. I found him by the fountain outside, with tears silently streaming down his face. It's so hard to see this little boy (who is the size of a 4 or 5 year old) sitting all by himself looking so hopeless. All the children in the home crave hugs and affection. When I give Happy a hug, he doesn't react. As the children were going to bed the other night, Happy mentioned to the other kids that I hugged him and he didn't know why. I asked the kids if he didn't like hugs and they said, "Oh no. He likes hugs, he just doesn't understand them."

My first 7 weeks here, Happy didn't talk to me at all. After a month, he began to smile at me, but if he caught my eye, he would quickly look away. Now, he's beginning to read with me and even said a few words to me. Although he still suffers from bouts of depression, Happy is interacting more every day. The latest group that came has a hilarious video of him dancing to Michael Jackson...I wish I had this video to post on here!

I'm a strong believer that God has a purpose for our names. Although my name means peace, I often struggled with peace, especially as a child. I now feel that God has given me the gift of peace in many very difficult situations. I hope that Happy too, would be given the grace of happiness in hard circumstances and that his life would be a testimony to what God can accomplish when we give our lives to him!