Rotary Guests Visit Sixth Graders At Reed Intermediate School

By Nancy K. Crevier

Reed Intermediate School sixth grade students in Maura Drabik and Todd Stentiford’s, and Gael Lynch and Tim Napolitano’s clusters were treated to a special visit on Monday, April 4, from six residents of the Royal Bafokeng region of Rustenburg, South Africa.

Clinical psychologist Sean Tunmer; university student and assistant to Mr Tunmer, Elaine Serekwane; retired South African high school teacher and Rotarian leader Peter van den Elshout; South African preschool teacher Maria Semenya; South African school teacher Obikeng Khunou; and Bertha Mahube spent an hour telling the students, who are currently studying Africa in social studies, about schools and daily life in South Africa.

The team of South African educators has been in the United States since March 19, thanks to a Rotary International grant that has partnered the Bridgeport Early Childhood Education community with rural South African communities. Newtown resident Tim Bartlett, a member of Bridgeport Rotary and director of the Bridgeport YMCA, and his wife Holly, a special education assistant at RIS, were instrumental in bringing the visitors to the school. The South African visitors had spent the earlier part of the day visiting The Waldorf School in Newtown.

The RIS students were very interested in how South African schools differ from their own. Ms Serekwane took the time to explain that students in South African schools always wear uniforms, and there is no bus service to schools.

“We must find our own ways to school,” said Ms Serekwane. “We walk, some people do what you call a carpool, or we take a taxi,” she said, clarifying that a taxi is more like the 15-passenger vans found in America. The school runs 12 months of the year in South Africa, she said, and is broken down into four quarters. Nor are students in public schools in South Africa so fortunate as students in America, she said.

“We do not have the computers you have here,” said Ms Serekwane, and furnishings are spare. Private schools have much more than the public schools in South Africa, she told the clusters.

Ms Mahube caught the attention of the children, greeting them in her native language. Like most of the visitors, she speaks seven dialects, she said.

A brief slide show introduced the clusters to notable figures of the region, as well as some of the culture, and wildlife in South Africa — notably the elephant. A recent news story of a rogue elephant overturning a car was of great interest to the students, who learned about the elephants’ social family structure from Mr Tunmer.

The Rotary guests have visited many other schools and preschool programs, such as the Bridgeport YMCA, said Mr Bartlett.

“They have spent and will continue to spend a good deal of time at Housatonic Community College in the lab rooms observing interactions with the preschoolers and teachers there,” Mr Bartlett said. They also participated in International Teach Day in New York City at the invitation of the United Nations, last week, he said.

The group has made time for a bit of entertainment, as well, visiting the Peabody Museum in New Haven, Pepe’s Pizza in New Haven, and Mystic Seaport and Aquarium. The six visitors will return to New York City on Friday, April 8, “just to be tourists,” Mr Bartlett said, before they return to South Africa on April 9.

The Rotary International grant that has opened opportunities for American and South African educators to travel to each other’s countries is the first of its kind in the world, said Mr Bartlett.