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Book 4

Introduction

About this project

The Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute is proud to present the very first Online Writing Project anthology. Modelled after the successful Bay Area Writing Project at the University of Berkeley, California - this year's Writing Project took place online with the intent of providing teachers of the Western Cape Education Department a safe place where they could develop their own personal writing.

The theme of this year's Writing project was very significant. Writing for Healing allowed teachers a chance to delve deep into their own experiences and it gave them a chance to express their feelings by putting pen down onto paper.

About the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute

The CTLI is a provincial training institute tasked with providing in-service teachers with professional development opportunities. Most of these opportunities are aimed at strengthening and developing teachers understanding of curriculum and pedagogy. The CTLI offers a wide range of courses that teachers can voluntarily attend throughout the year in a face-to-face environment on a beautiful campus.

The new COVID normal, however, saw all of these opportunities for teachers move to a digital space and all of the CTLI's courses are now presented online.

About the Writing Project

The Writing Project has been presented as a face- to-face course at the CTLI in the past. Teachers attended a series of workshops aimed at strengthening the knowledge, expertise and leadership of teachers to promote and improve the writing skills of all learners. The goals of this project are to:
1. improve the learning and achievement of learners by improving the teaching of writing
2. concentrate efforts where literacy is most in jeopardy
3. support teachers as they prepare to meet the requirements of the curriculum
4. emphasise approaches to writing and reading of learners and
5. recogonise that teachers are the key to educational reform and that experienced teachers are the best teachers of other teachers.

The 2021 Writing Project: Writing for Healing

The writing project of this year was slightly different to previous years. It was a direct response to what teachers have experienced over the last year or two. It aimed to acknowledge that teachers are part of greater society and the pain coursing through society very much affects teachers and their experiences.
The coordinators of this course felt that teachers needed a safe place that would allow them to put what they are going through and what they have experienced in their own lives onto paper. The theme was carefully selected and each online webinar session was carefully crafted around the healing power of writing.

The project's original objectives remained in that , although not explicitly, teachers were given tools that they could use, not only in their own personal writing, but also in the classroom. Teachers were encouraged to write and to share their writing at each online webinar. An Author's Chair where writing was shared was a significant part of each session.

This anthology contains writing pieces written by the participants who attended six different webinar sessions in August 2021. Each piece is personal and different. Each piece provides insight into the pain experienced by different individuals and also the hope and healing that writing can bring.

The 2021 Writing Project: Presenters

We were extremely privileged to have experts in the field of writing present at each webinar.

Thank you to the following keynote speakers who brought their light to all our sessions centered around a specific theme:

Listening to my soul
Professor Irma Eloff (University of Pretoria)

Caressing my imagination
Magdalena Benn

Exploring my world
Cheryl Logan (Columbia University-USA)

Re-imagining my world
Carla Hanson & Tom O'Hara - Great Valley Writing Project (California) 

Conquering my darkness
Dr Hanlie Dippenaar-Cape Peninsula University of Technology &
Dr Roxanne Henkin(University of Texas) & Gladys Jacobson

About this book

Book 4 of the CTLI Writing Project Anthology Series.
The authors represented in this book are as follows:

Alistair Sebastian
Beulinde S. Fisher
Carlene Notley
Caylie PIedt
Isabella
Florence Phillips
Najma Ismail
Kashiefa Ferus
Elise Titus
Belinda Petersen
Madenia Ismail
Vida Ryan
Lee-Ana Daames
Brigette
LRS

I thank my children for believing in Magic
by Alistair Sebastian

for Catherine and Alexander

As a child magic was welcomed. It was inviting, enthralling, filling us with wonder and awe and allowing us to see the world through the eyes of one who could do anything and be anything. Seen through the eyes of a child the world is an amazing place filled with magical creatures and a cornucopia of opportunities.

Then - we grow up. We learn through life experiences that magic is a lie, nothing but a collection of slights and misdirection. We begin to feel as if our child-like concept of the world was too naïve. The truth sinks in and like a cinder block shackled to our feet reality pulls us beneath the waters of despair. We age - – we study – we work – we marry- we have children of our own.

Our awareness of the reality of the world forces us to try to shield our young for as long as we can from the dragons out there. But, soon, we learn that through the eyes of our children the magic has not really died. Our belief in magic is revitalised.

So! We invite the magic back in. Now, once more, we see the wonder and awe that we had so forgotten. We see the amazement in their little eyes. We see the light of life fill their tender faces and the magic survives – the cycle continues.

We know that we cannot live in a world of fantasy but how much more appealing is the idea? We know that reality like a vicious brute is always waiting to nip at our dreams. But yet the fantasy, the magic, draws us in and enfolds us in a warm blanket of possibilities. Magic is the place where all things are possible – where all dreams are possible – where all is possible.

Mother
by Alistair Sebastian
(Lillian: God is a vow)

Tunes, thro’ puckered lips ripple through my lair
Fears, sadness, weighted loads of living fade
like ice melting from the warmth it made.
Her voice echoes now through the air
And the sweet smells of supper linger there
Amidst the clinking glass and table laid
My pain I know - her pain I too have made
Her gentle voice with ease the world to bear
How I so wish I could have known your pain
Or the soft voice to soothe your tender heart
I with living … thought we had so much time
Late to face the storm or the coming rain
Too late to sing - time only to but part
Who is now there to ease my burdened heart? 

This poem is dedicated to my mother who was such a special person. She died of cancer almost 30 years ago. Even through her suffering, which she did quietly and in a most dignified way, she still sought to help those around her deal with their issues and problems. I regret not having recognised just how sick she was. We were teenagers concerned so much with our own lives that we didn’t notice the pain of others or how much of an impact the loss would be.

About the author
Alistair Martin Sebastian was born on 24th November 1973 in Cape Town. He was the first in his family to attend university and completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University of the Western Cape in 1994. He then went on to complete a one year Higher Diploma in Education at UWC in 1995. He currently holds the position of Head of Department (English) and Academic Head at Rhodes High School. He has taught English at High School level for the past twenty four years