First School Visit - Day 5

Today was the first day we visited the Mamelodi Schools. We spilt into groups between the primary and secondary school. My group and I worked at the Stanza Bopape Secondary School. The three Language Arts teachers were given a tour by the English as a Second Language instructor. We spent 3 periods (45min each) moving between his classes. At the school, the teaches move and the students stay put. The students were soooo well behaved, especially for 8th and 9th graders! When the teacher arrived, there was no other adult in the class, however all students were seated. As we entered, the students stood up and greeted their teacher.
After introductions, we would answer questions the students had about school in America and ask them to compare our answer with their school. The exchange was very nice and the students answered a lot of our inquiries about the day to day.
My favorite part of the day came toward the end. Our group was walking around the grounds looking to see what the classes were like. We peeked into one class where there was no teacher at all. The children were not running around yelling at the top of their lungs, they were seated at their desks talking with each other. The students turned out to be a class of juniors, year 11. They blew us away with their question. The questions that stuck out the most were: "Do we have AIDs in the US? Is there any sex education? And are pregnant teens allowed to come to school?" To me, this line of questioning with the older students says a lot about the social and health problems these children are facing in and out of school.
After class a young woman came up to our group and thanked us for coming in. She was quiet during the discussion and after fielding questions from all the boys, we encouraged a girl to speak up. She was the only one to raise her hand. She said it wasn't that the girls didn't have questions, but that they wanted to listen to us and process what we were telling them. She express that her parents told her that you always learn more from listening rather than talking. What brilliance and potential this young woman showed as she spoke with us after the class was dismissed. She said many of her peers were into doing "negative" things such as drinking and drugs and that for caring about her education and remaining hopeful she was often made fun of! I wanted to put that girl and her positive outlook in front of every student at the school and say: Here is your role model! Follow her and not the others who are getting involved in such negative activities!
This brilliant girl can go places, she will make it on to bigger and better places and hopefully fulfill her dreams of heading to college...I wonder if her dreams and my wishes for her will come true?