Dumazweni School in Soweto

On June 19, 2009, I enjoyed my visit at Dumazweni School in Soweto, Johannesburg. Ms. Wilkinson is the director of Social Services at Kingsmead College High School in Rose Bank. She runs the Life Orientation Program. We were bonded at the first sight because her Life Orientation Program and my Values program were similar in content. She kindly included me in her educational tour with two black students to Dumazweni School. The teachers at school were also in school uniforms of their Alma mater. They were remembering the Soweto Uprising in 1976 - the time which helped to change the country, although a violent time. On the day I was there, they were going to have a special assembly commemorating Youth Day or June 16. Many of the blazers which they were wearing were from the school they were attending when young. They looked very proud. I suppose it was a way of linking the past with the present.

Thabile and Nqobile were the name of the students who were expected to do a teaching practice in different classrooms. While they were teaching, I had the pleasure of teaching an Art class. I introduced my country Japan, myself as a Japanese school teacher, my national costume of kimono and the paper-folding art of origami. The students were fascinated by the fact that a simple square paper could turn into all different shapes and 3D objects. I showed them how they could cut a perfect square paper from an old newspaper. I helped them make a box without a lid. I suggested different ways to use boxes so that they can reuse old newspaper. I showed the value of reusing and recycling in Japan, just like the way I wore my parents' old kimono. I added the value of respecting life in Japan because the kimono fabric had come from life, silkworms.