In the lead up to the publication of A School Where I Belong, we have shared some of the conversations we have had with learners, teachers and principals.
The book is now available in stores!
In the coming weeks all of the filmed conversations will be available on this site as well as advice, strategies and suggestions for schools to create places where all feel they belong.
As the book is launched across the country and we continue our work in schools with teachers, management teams, parents and learners, we will keep on sharing reflections and what we are learning.
I have watched this video of Meneer many times and each time I do I am struck by his concern for this one boy. I can just imagine him lying awake at night worrying about that white boy at his school. “Does he have friends?” “Is he fitting in?” “Is he coping with his environment?” “Does he feel like he belongs?”
Read MoreEarlier this week a video circulated on social media that a Hoërskool Die Burger learner had filmed during class. The video shows her/his teacher loudly calling the class "black idiots" who "only invented peanut butter". He then goes on to remind the class of presumably mainly black young people, that the reason he calls them idiots is that he is really trying to make them "champions" and doesn't believe in "black" or "idiots". Again, he tells them very loudly.
Read MoreNabeel attended a public boys' school. He graduated in 2012.
Read MoreIn writing the book, A School Where I Belong, we got to sit across from school leaders, such as Tony, who runs a boy's school that is over a hundred years old. He recognises the privilege and responsibility this brings.
Read More"The past is never where we thought we left it.” It often chooses the most inopportune moments to pop up and intimidate, impose its voice and even shout its opinion about the people we are meeting, the experiences we are having in the ‘now’. This is true of our personal pasts, but equally true of our collective past as well.
Read MoreIn August 2016 black girls at Pretoria Girls High spoke up. They spoke of hair rules and the (in)visible acts of discrimination that had worn them down. They spoke of not being seen and for a very long time, of not belonging.
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