Eish! London 5 - 6 July

Sunday, 5 July – Wimbledon Tennis Finals
Sadly I never managed to get to the Wimbledon Tennis Courts themselves, so I settled for watching it on the telly at a house in Wimbledon. The Wimbledon Tennis Tournament is an age old part of British tradition, unbefittingly I dressed in what ‘tennis gear’ (baggies and T-shirt!) I could find hidden in my cupboard. From there I went to a University friend’s place to squash on the couch with other would-be-attendees, and attempted to watch the longest tennis match final ever! Thankfully Lauren is an outstanding hostess and there were loads of people to chat to, meat to braai and ‘tennis’ to be played in the small back garden. I don’t think anyone actually managed to stay in front of the TV for the whole match. The 123rd Wimbledon Men’s Final was won by Roger Federer; who beat Andy Roddick in a 16-14 tie-break at the end of one very long duel (much to the immense disappointment of the British)!

Monday, 6 July
For work today I went out to observe an In-School Presentation at a PRU school. PRU stand for: Pupil Referral Unit. These schools are for the pupils who, due to various behavioural challenges and uncontrollable circumstances, cannot attend mainstream schools any more. The children are basically the toughest of the tough, and are sitting at the last stop in the education system that wants to monitor them and keep them in a safer environment than their alternative options. I felt overly cautious in the classroom, but was blessed to have Francis (another SLO) sitting next to me, a big teddy bear of a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Richard Gere. The world is an easier place to handle when I’m next to calmly intelligent people. Francis was literally cool, calm and collected, it was great. The SLO taking the class was not as confident as Francis; she came from a New Zealand primary teaching background and I think the daunting nature of the situation was too much for her systematic style of presenting. In their classroom these learners dictate how the presentation goes, and you can’t do anything about it because that would disrupt their routine and they are more than aware of their rights if you step out of line. The learners were doing their own things at their desks; and their life experiences with regards to graffiti and Officers of the law were far more extensive than ours; I understood why they wouldn’t really care about paying for bus tickets and / or wearing reflective clothing. Unfortunately if that’s what you are supposed to be teaching them, and you can’t, it gets very frustrating and de-motivating. She ended up having to close off long before the hour was up. I could see more efficient ways to handled the group, but it’s always easier to comment from the outside looking in and constructive criticism is always a difficult topic, so I kept my opinions to myself: “They were a tough group, well done!” I said, as I tried to be encouraging. She gave me a sad half-smile and said very little for the rest of the morning.

I was actually irritated, because those kinds of situations don’t have to happen if your trainers are trained to be trainers. I have yet to find any course that teaches people the dynamics, skills and tools that you have to know, understand and utilise when you train, teach and / or work with such a vast expanse of varied individuals. I reckon the world needs more practical training on how to deal with different people so that we can get the best out of everybody; such a pity the world promotes learning about maths and modern science (only 200 years in existence!), and not how to cope with, and balance, being part of the human race (thousands of years in existence!).