Educator Learns and Teaches in S. Africa

When Betsy Stelck visited South Africa with her husband in 1965, it was a country of contrasts, a racially divided nation where black children were routinely denied the educational opportunities provided to whites.

Thirty-one years later, the veteran educator returned to the post-apartheid nation not as a tourist but a participant in a summit designed to improve the state of South African education.

“The people are so rich in spirit,” Stelck said, reflecting on her two-week August trip at her Northridge home, “so optimistic that this is going to be the beginning of freedom. The hope is with the children.”

Dubbed the United States/South Africa Joint Congress on Early Childhood Education, the conference drew 74 American delegates to share their experiences with educators who are struggling to raise the quality of instruction in their once-turbulent country.

Stelck, who owns two Northridge preschools with her husband, Del, said that she was especially dismayed by school conditions in impoverished townships such as Soweto.

“The physical facilities are so poor,” she said, but noted that President Nelson Mandela has pledged to channel more of the country’s resources into creating educational opportunities for young people.

Still, despite the shortcomings, there are lessons for American teachers to learn as well.

“They do a much better job in music than we do,” she said. “Our teachers are really not that relaxed in teaching music.”

For Stelck, the trip was a highlight in a lifetime of world travel and a chance to improve children’s lives. She noted, however, that the delegates were not invited as missionaries to cure the country’s ills.

South African education officials, she said, “are going about it in a very systematic fashion. This is what they’re doing for their country.”