Learning experience reflection: The first session

To fulfill the purpose of this blog, I'll be reflecting on one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. It just happened to be in the field of education, teaching and learning, which is an added benefit. For the sake of privacy, both for myself and other people involved, I won't be using names or locations in my reflections. This also sadly means I can't post photos of the experience or the people or place I interacted with.

The story begins:

When I first joined university I wanted to use the opportunity to finally get involved in volunteer work. I hadn't really had opportunities to do so before, but the university is thankfully alive with diverse extramural activities, societies and community projects to take part in.

Of the many opportunities I was interested in, one was a community project that facilitated university students tutoring grade 12 learners at an underprivileged school in the nearby township. Learners there face a great number of challenges in both their living environments and at their schools. According to one of the other projects found in this township, some of these challenges include poverty, homelessness, HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, drug abuse, illiteracy, malnutrition, crime, and a high incidence of one parent households. Most of these everyday tragedies result of inequalities systematically introduced during the Apartheid era which still persist to this day. Unfortunately, people from this township remain marginalised and excluded. This is evident in how many people from this township refer to people in the city as coming from the "other side", how many people in the township have never left its borders, and how may people in this township will remain trapped in a cycle of poverty. One of the things I greatly like about the project I wanted to join was that its focus was not on charity,  and not just academic education, but rather building relationships that cross socioeconomic divides and builds a unity between people.

Then, at the young age of 18, I made a mistake. I told my parents about my decision to volunteer. They became hysterical. Unfortunately they held on to misconceptions and fears about "the other" that were deeply triggered by their natural parental instincts to protect me. I was told that a black township was never, under any conditions, safe for a young white woman to go to. While I can't remember their exact words, I seem to remember them behaving as if they thought that I'd be robbed, murdered and raped as soon as I set foot in a township. Never mind the fact that the university would never endorse something that put their students in danger. I was forbidden from volunteering. My second mistake was to obey them.

I missed out on a lot because of that decision. Thankfully by second year I'd built up enough strength of character to disobey my parents and volunteer. This was one of the best decisions of my life. What I experienced and learned, which I will cover in future blog reflections, changed me as a  person, changed my path in life, and gave me a change to change the world. Indeed, not long after I started, my parents saw how much I benefited from volunteering that they came to support me and my endeavors.

This is where I learned my first important lesson from this journey: Do not let anyone stop you from doing what is truly important to you in life.

Lastly, to conclude, this image is a reflection of my views of learning and way of living life: