A Salute to Women Extraordinaires – Teachers

“Black Voices Shout” an anthology of liberation poetry; “Brave New World” Aldoux Huxley’s science fiction that has become a fact of our modern society. Two books that opened up whole new worlds for me. Two books I received from a teacher who lived teaching. It was close to the end of my high school days when, for the first time, I was gifted in this way. Thank you, Mrs. Willcox.

I always loved school – and I excelled as I was as studious as hell. I literally stayed on the doorstep of my primary school. In the afternoons the teachers would walk past my house on the way to the bus stop. They always sounded jolly. Only a few teachers had cars and the bus was as regular as the school bell. During holidays I would go back to school – to help the caretaker wash and polish the classrooms. It meant of course that we can feast on the School Feeding biscuits as reward. My high school was a little further down the road. School always was a home away from home. I suppose in a sense, I experienced my teachers as surrogate parents.

Mrs. Willcox taught me English. She could also teach Latin but the subject was phased out at my school few years earlier. She was not a tall woman but she filled a room with her voice. I never realized the droning of my own voice until she repeatedly threatened to buy me a muzzle. I never knew what she meant nor did I question her – but I got the message – it has to do with the fact that I finish my work quickly and then started up conversations at the back of the classroom.

She was equally sharp to catch us as we tried to play a quick game of Klawerjas at the back. She also taught us music – accompanying us on the piano or the harmonica. And then she held auditions for a very ambitious play “The Madwoman of Chaillot”. I got the part of the Prospector – and I could add “actor” to my list of activities when I applied for a study bursary. Mrs Willcox believed in me – and that made me believe in myself.

It was in my adult years that I got to know a little about her history. While we knew her only as a teacher, at the time, her husband was a long term political prisoner on Robben Island and she endured considerable harassment by the state. She turned persecution into a commitment to liberate through education. I had the privilege to meet with the couple post his release. At the time she was heading a NGO focusing on adult literacy and entrepreneurship. An educator for life I realised. It is through the influence of such teachers that I turned to teaching as career. I always joked with my students that I loved school so much that I decided to return to school as a teacher.

In moment of bliss I declare

Shall I compare thee………

When the South-Easter howls in Cape Town, I speak in the words of Shelley

O Wild West Wind, they breath of Autumn’s being………

I lullaby’d my children to sleep to the refrain of

Qui sera sera ………

I expressed my comradely solidarity with clenched fist shouting

To all those who have been banned, jailed, exiled or dead…..

It was you, Mrs Willcox, who helped shape within me this language, this poetry, this music and the passion for learning. I thank you and all those teachers who imprinted so richly my soul.