Motor vehicle of the mind

Another busy day today.  Our group finished painting another room at House today.  I helped paint for a while, and I helped scrub the floors, cupboards, and edging of the room that was finished yesterday.  I was exceptionally tired when I got home from service, but I had a PB&J to rev me up, and Taylor and I walked to class.

Today, we had seminar and recapped the first reading assignment in A Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela’s autobiography.  It is interesting to follow the childhood and young adult developments of such a great modern leader.  I admire Mandela’s courage as a young person.  His guardian paid for his education, and the ideas Mandela developed surpassed the understanding of his elders.  He went through such a transformation through his education that he was forced to remove himself from his home and the position that he was groomed for since boyhood in order to reconcile conflict within himself to choose between a tribal or modern lifestyle.  Most of the adults in his life probably thought Mandela just had a wild hair up his butt, when in reality he was changing in a way that he could not turn away from.  And thank God he took the steps he did, because his leadership brought democracy to South Africa.

Culture Comment for Bruce

We discussed education as a vehicle for transformation in contemporary South Africa.  Mandela asserts that education is what one makes of it.  Anyone can learn if she or he puts her or his mind to it.  Some in our group would contest that after seeing the conditions at Pendla Primary school and reading the news.  Children arrive at a school with no toilets and are ushered to the middle of the play field to relieve themselves together with the rest of their classmates.  There are oftentimes no teachers because the national government cuts came in the form of eliminating teaching positions.  Textbooks are a rarity.  In these circumstances, one must ask herself if these children really have any opportunity to learn.  In the Eastern Cape less than 50% of children pass their matrix exams (a standardized test).  It is here that we see the cycle of poverty repeated for children that may have the deepest desires and potential to succeed but simply do not have the resources.  

Of all the times I have realized the value of my education, the stark contrast between the opportunities I have up against the desperate situation in the Eastern Cape conjures the enormous gratitude.  I need to thank grandparents made private education possible, parents and grandparents who provided school supplies, transportation and homework support, and the coaches and teachers who set great examples and high standards, encouraging me to achieve beyond what I could dream.  My hope is that all of the resources poured into me can amount to something for those who lack resources.  The mechanism I do not know at this time, but the cogs are turning.