The difference that makes the difference

Gershom Aitchison, host · [03:55]Creina, at the end of last year, we went through a very rigorous design process with the teachers and some external people to get an idea of what a hybrid learning space would be. And we did that and we prototyped it so that we could see what would actually work. We had an idea. And what we found is that there were three elements to creating a hybrid space and making it very effective. The first was we identified that there's technology for communication. The second thing we identified is technology for work. And the most important is we identified technological behaviors. And if one of those three elements are absent, then the system collapses. It doesn't work effectively. So in a classroom situation, a hybrid classroom situation, Technology for communication is one of the most important things. And initially, when we started the design process, conceptually we thought that there would be two monitors in front of the classroom, one with the students on a meet and one with the teacher presenting work that needed to be done. But the teacher couldn't see the student in the classroom. So that second monitor actually moved to the back of the classroom with a webcam on it that allows the students at home to be the student at the back of the class viewing the entire class situation, and it helped create that immersive experience for the students who are digitally there. It also made sure that the students digitally were not lost to the teacher. They could see them physically in the classroom, even though they were digitally portrayed in that space. If they put their hands up, if they spoke, and if they were engaging, the teacher could still see their body language, still could see what they were busy doing, and their classmates could see that as well, and they could see their classmates engaging in that space. The biggest challenge in the communication was actually the sound. Because the assumption is that a webcam can do that, but we have to have a boom mic in the classroom to generate spontaneous conversation. So when we are having a discussion, we'll say to the students, come off your mics, and then everyone talks as though they're present, and obviously the sound comes out of the TV at the back of the room, but it's capturing the entire conversation from the boom mic in the middle of the classroom. That was one of the biggest barriers to effective communication and that immersive experience in that classroom.

Creina, guest · [26:15]Eventually, my husband turned around to me and said, what is the point of putting our child in a Rolls Royce if actually he needs a Beetle and he'll really get a lot out of a Beetle? And then we started looking, and I think when we made the leap, it was a leap of faith. I did a lot of research. I did as much as I could, and there wasn't, there wasn't enough. There was never enough. But we took the leap of faith. I think the trial week was exceptional. And I think that what started standing out for me was a generosity of spirit and time that for me started making a distinction between what I would call the practice of education versus the business of education. And for me, Edu Inc has been about the practice of education rather than the business of education. And how I've seen that play out over these years now, I think we're on to two and a half years, goes quickly, is that firstly there's absolute transparency with regards fees and monies asked for, and there's not a continuous conversation that happens throughout the year. So you know what you're in for at the beginning, and at the end, that's what you've been in for. So that's the more transactional level of, of, of business and practice. But for me and for us, what's been far more important is that there's been a distinction in my own experience and my own family's experience, and everybody's right, but only partially, and this is my experience only, but this is the difference between values that are espoused and values that are lived. And for us, the values that are spoken at Edu Inc are those that are lived. We're in the practice of learning and teaching, not only for the child, but also for the parents. So I, I've been learning. I've been learning about different approaches to parenting. And I also just love, and this is something Edu Inc shared with me at the very, very first meeting we had with Gershom and, and Jackie. Was the IQ, EQ, and AQ, and what I remembered by the AQ, so you've got your IQ, that's the teaching, that's the thinking stuff, you've got your EQ, that's the feeling stuff. But actually, the tacky hits the tar with the doing stuff, and that's the application stuff, that's the accountability. I think of it as accountability quotient. And actually, for me, that is what is going to help prepare my child for the real world and the world after Edu Inc, because you can do the thinking, and you can do it in a Rolls Royce, and you can do the feeling, yeah, you can, but the actual doing where the tacky hits the tar is in the application, and then the accountability, and the consequence management, and what is a deal and what is a sanction if the deal isn't kept. And all of, this is life, this is, this is what's going to help beyond Edu Inc. You know, if it's in the afternoons and the evenings beyond Edu Inc, because life happens, or if it's after matric. This for me is, is a very, very important distinction.

Mandy, guest · [34:57]before I moved Eden, I started to acknowledge that this was a bigger problem than I could control. And, you know, it was low. Took a while to notice that she didn't smile anymore. That happy laughter which used to ring throughout the house didn't happen anymore. I mean, at one stage, you know, these, these fancy private schools, they allocate you a whole twelve minutes once a term to chat to the teacher. Twelve if you're lucky. And I, in fact, stopped bothering to go. And so the teacher called me one day and said, Mandy, you've missed your, your appointment. And I, I looked at her and I said, I'm aware of that. I'm very busy. Can we do this next week? She said, absolutely not. I allocated those days for it. So I think it was exhaustion on my own part. I just said to her, you know what? I can't be bothered to make that appointment if I'm honest. She said, why? I said, because you're going to tell me for ten minutes that my child is crap. And I already know that. And I walked away. And then I thought, oh my God, the fact that I've even said that We're not in a good space here. I feel that. This is what I feel the teachers are saying. She didn't want to go to school. She hated every part of it. She stopped laughing. She stopped smiling. She started to become mean and aggressive at home. She started to refer to herself as stupid and as worthless. And you know, I fought the good fight. I kept going and I kept going and then I kept mentioning to her, I'd like to look at other schools, I'd like to look at other schools, and she refused. She wanted to stay there. And it was actually a year later, she came to me and she said, I'm ready. Please take me somewhere else. So I started the quest and somebody else recommended Edu Inc, so I went for the meeting and I liked what I saw. my initial thought was, great, these people will fix what the other school have broken and then I can send her back. And I was, Heart point to be told that we don't fix them so that the other schools can break them. That's not what we do.

Mandy, guest · [37:57]In fact, I think the, the clincher Was when one of the heads, I said, you know, what do I do? Where do I go from here? And she flapped her hand at me across the table and said, oh God, I don't know, give her more drugs. I will never forget that day, and I knew then I was taking my child out. How do you just say to me, oh, we don't know, give her more drugs? Get a tutor. I said, I'm doing that. I'm looking at another forty grand a year alone. What did you people do with the hundred and twenty I already gave you? I knew then the conversation was over. So at the same time, Eden was now at a drink for a week, and they gave them their fancy books with the, with the colors on. I didn't think you need to reintroduce that. With all these lovely pictures. And after I fetched her from school, I went to a coffee shop, cause kid number two was doing dancing, and I needed to look for an hour with Edie. And what does the child do? She whips out her fancy colorful book that she'd got that day on day one. And showed me the maths that she did. And then before my chair, I still said to her, who are you? Since when do you ever show me anything? And since when are you ever excited? And that was the time I knew. You know, I didn't know whether or not to use your analogy, whether it was a Rolls Royce or a Beetle. I'd already figured out that option one was looking rather more like a donkey cart than I was willing to accept. And at this point in time, I didn't care whether the other one, what it was. I just knew that my kid had to go there because she smiled at me for the first time in six months. And if she's happy, you can do anything in an environment that you are happy. But you can be in the best possible place with all, she said, all the, all the toys and the bells and the whistles. If your heart is not there, she will not achieve. I was told straight to my face, your child's ADD is so bad, she's uneducatable. My child gets merit certificates for academics from Edu Inc. There's nothing wrong with that child.

Debbie, guest · [41:01]I do. Oliver is also ADHD, so he was finding a large classroom difficult. And their only solution was to add on extra. So he had to then have a, I think they call it the middle room, where he goes and he gets separated from his class to get extra, because they, they just needed to take some of the children out to give them the, the attention they needed. And then he had to have speech therapy, and then we had OT, and we were looking at a remedial. And ultimately, when we actually added all of that up, it was, it was eye-watering. And it was making him feel different, and stupid, and everything, all the things that come with it. And in a boys' school, all the, the other boys start to comment on it, and, and it starts to knock their self-confidence. So when we were Looking at options, the only option we were presented was remedial, but my child is smart. He's, he's got a high IQ. He just needed a different way of being taught. And that's where Edu Inc just stepped in and they fill that gap beautifully. You know, it's a, it's a mainstream, quite high pressured school, but the pressure's put on the kids in the way that they can handle it and when they, they rise to it. You bring the best out of these children, you produce the most incredible results that you don't think your child can achieve, and, and they wouldn't achieve in a big classroom.

Mandy, guest · [55:09]I just, I, actually, just breakfast, I was in the kitchen and, and I was making her eat her food and she wouldn't eat her food. And this was every day, all day. And I, and I, I heard a woman shrieking, the most abominable language I've ever heard. And it was this feeling, I, I suddenly saw my kitchen from the ceiling. And I saw myself and the rictus that my face was was pulled into and I and I saw a child with utter terror and such immense sadness and it took a split second for me to realize that what I was looking at was my own home and it wasn't seven o'clock and I had used every filthy word I'd ever learned and and I I snapped back into into reality and I put what I I was doing down and I closed my mouth and I walked out the room and I knew that life could no child deserves to be spoken to like that by the woman who's supposed to love her and no woman who's supposed to try and parent nobody deserved to feel the way I did there was something so massively wrong And I didn't know what it was. And it was a soup. It was a, it was a horrible soup of so many things. You must remember that when your kid is told she has ADD, you blame yourself. What did I do wrong? What is wrong with me? We all believe that our cherubs come out utterly perfect. I can tell you now, categorically, I have the most beautiful daughters in Joburg. But then you also think that about yours. I can tell you now that you are wrong. Mine are better. it takes a while for you to realize that your children are also flawed human beings like the rest of us, but I took all of this personally. So this ended up not a journey of Eden's ADD and changing schools. This sparked a journey of my own perception of self. So here I'm trying to deal with the fact that my kid is thick and can't pass grade three. And at the same time, I'm unraveling my own issues. And the poor little onlooker on here is, is that Golden-haired little three-year-old who's watching mom turn into an animal. And that was when I knew, I don't know what needs to be changed, but I gotta rip this whole thing apart because this is not life.