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By Rebecca Rakoczy, Special To The Bulletin
DECATUR—The tall woman with braided hair swept into St.
Thomas More School during a beautiful day in May and was greeted by the
third-grade classes with the warmth reserved for a favorite aunt.
But this was no ordinary visitor; she had traveled over 18 hours,
crossing five time zones and a continent to reach her destination.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, bureau chief for CNN in Johannesburg,
South Africa, and a seasoned international reporter, has covered famines and
wars, the downfall of apartheid and the emergence of a democratic nation. An
author, she has received two dozen honorary degrees, two Peabody Awards and two
Emmys. But it was the written request of three third-graders that drew her to
the Decatur Catholic school to talk about her passion for writing and her
lifelong love of learning.
A history-maker in her own right, as the first African-American
woman to break the color barrier at the University of Georgia in 1961,
Hunter-Gault was selected by third-grade students Nia Williams, Julian Mahadeo
and Sean Rakoczy as the subject of their language arts report during Black
History Month.
The students researched her life and created special computer art
“stamps” of their subject as part of an integrated curriculum project
which included language arts, history, computer and art, explained third-grade
teacher Stacy Glavin.
“We started out the project and discussed who was a hero and
what makes a hero,” she said. Students were asked to focus on a
contemporary role model. Then they sent personal letters of invitation to the
school. Each student drew symbols of what that person’s life stood for and
the stamps that were created were sent also.
The students received dozens of written responses, but it was
Hunter-Gault who accepted their invitation. The timing was serendipitous. The
weekend before she received an honorary degree and gave the commencement
address at Duke University, which was followed by her acceptance of an honorary
degree at Emory University, her son’s alma mater. The day after she was to
return to South Africa.
Her visit wasn’t reserved for the third grade: the entire St.
Thomas More student body was allowed to participate. Everyone from kindergarten
through eighth grade helped out, making artistic renderings of African kente
cloth designs to decorate the school auditorium, while the middle school choir
practiced a special African song of greeting.
Hunter-Gault didn’t disappoint. She spent the morning
regaling the student body with tales of Africa, both the real stories she has
reported on and those she learned from native folklore, and shared her own
personal heroes and sources of inspiration.
A native of Covington who as a child attended St. Paul of the
Cross Church in Atlanta, Hunter-Gault pursued a degree in journalism at UGA
despite vocally abusive opposition to her presence.
“I love learning and I love people,” she told the
students. “(Journalism) allows me to learn the rest of my life, and helps
by asking questions and informing myself about so many different things every
day.”
Africa presents a lot of challenges even for a seasoned reporter
like Hunter-Gault. With 58 separate countries, and a diverse geography, there
are many things to learn and write about. “Every day I get up, I look at
the map of Africa. It is so exciting.”
“A lot of people ask me, ‘Why should I care what goes on
in Africa?’” she told the school children. “But the world is one
complete part, and if one part doesn’t work, then ultimately every part of
the whole is going to suffer. The biggest challenge right now, in addition to
establishing a democratic culture there, is the challenge of HIV-AIDS.”
Hunter-Gault brought the crisis in Africa to the students’
level, by talking about a 12-year-old girl who is now the head of her
household, after losing both parents to AIDS.
“There are thousands of children taking care of their
siblings. It’s now the biggest challenge on the continent,” she said.
Asked by a student what the “best story” she ever
covered was, Hunter-Gault replied, “Every story I do is the best story
I’ve every done, but if I had to say, my most favorite was to interview
Nelson Mandela after he was released from prison after 27 years. The people
there call him Mandiba—an affectionate praise name loosely translated that
means ‘Father of a nation.’”
Later she sat in on the seventh-grade literature class and talked
to the students about writing. Her advice to the students: “Write what you
know. Write often. And be disciplined about your writing. Don’t do it when
you don’t feel like it. Do it especially when you don’t feel like
it.”
She left the school assembly with the South African Zulu greeting,
“Hamba kahle,” which means “Stay well,” and taught them the
response, “Sala kahle,” which means, “Go well.”
The next day she made the 18-hour flight back to South Africa.
While talking to the students isn’t an everyday occurrence for
Hunter-Gault, it was special for her too. “Talking to kids keeps me
humble,” she said with a smile.
For students like Nia Williams, who designed a special stamp and
wrote her report on Hunter-Gault, the visit was a dream come true.
“After Nia chose (Hunter-Gault) for her project, I realized
she was going to be in South Africa and she couldn’t possibly get her to
come because of the long distance,” Nia’s mother, Gail, said.
“But then when she e-mailed back and said she could come, oh my gosh, we
couldn’t believe it. Nia was glowing. She felt so special.”
Children in the third grade also sent letters and special stamps
to Dr. Louis Sullivan, authors Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, Mayor Bill
Campbell, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Bishop Wilton Gregory, vice
president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as other public and private figures who
inspired them.
For the most part, all of the letters came back with personal
notes of thanks and inspiration, Glavin said. The written responses the
children received from their “heroes” “were just overwhelming,
we couldn’t believe it,” Glavin said.
Making history relevant for students is an ongoing task for
teachers of any grade. Glavin hopes students remember this lesson.
“The purpose of the (black history) project was to see that
history is being made around us every day by people who care about our country
and want to make a positive impact on our country,” said Glavin. “It
was important to us that black history meant more to the students than Harriet
Tubman and George Washington Carver . . . We wanted them to see that the world
was filled with people around them (like Hunter-Gault) that made a difference
and (are continuing to make) a contribution to our lives and society today as
we know it.”
“The children were made keenly aware of the fact that they
were sitting in an integrated school, and were shocked to learn that at one
time black people had a separate water fountain and were separated. They
thought that was so stupid. Yet here was a woman who had put up with people
filled with hate, and her sacrifices allowed them to sit in a class with
students of very diverse backgrounds.” |
