The Impowrd Program

Some might say delusional - I say faith like a mustard seed.

I believe inclusion begins with facing your own failures and challenges.

The past 2 days I had a workshop with a group of facilitators of the Sabrina Love Foundation. I must say that while they shared their failures and challenges they faced, a part of me became really saddened by what came out during their days in class.

Globally I think this is something we are facing currently. We are so focused on our problems that we have become dishearted.We should celebrate them because it creates the perfect opportunity for something new and different to be created.In South African culture we rarely have open and honest post-mortems in schools, companies, governments, businesses, projects etc. This ripples down to our children - they always fear test results. In the failures of testing, the key to success lies.

The debate will always remain about whether children of diversity should be included in mainstream schools. I respect all opinions but it is a no-brainer. It is their right. As a country we cannot accommodate all in separate private schools. We lack capacity and infrastructure. We have to do what we can with what we have.

This might seem cruel, but with deep gratitude I celebrate the flaws and challenges of the CAPS curriculum and those that have failed because of it - how else could we create change if it was all pristine?

Key takeaways:

💡Teaching requires in-depth knowledge not only of teaching methods but also how to integrate the curriculum with a diverse and inclusive teaching method.

💡Bravely facing our failures as a collective we can find solutions and more efficient ways which generates momentum for our future generations.

💡Teachers & teacher facilitaors carry a huge mental load - we need strategies to take care of our mental health and make it the norm.

💡We cannot have tunnel vision as we face this crisis in education, we need to embrace diverse perspectives and see opportunities in every challenge.

When a group of people come together it is not additive, rather exponential.