1. Kay-Dee is sitting on a small red stool
in the Shine Centre. Her hair is pulled
over to one side of her head in a tight
braid. At the end of the braid is a dark
green bow.
This Grade Three, eight-year-old is
playing a literacy game with her
learning partner, Lynne. Lynne holds
up a card with a picture on it.
“That is a pot,” says Kay-Dee.
She looks down at the game board in
front of her to see if she has that same
picture. She does. She takes the card
and covers the picture on her board.
Without having to be asked, Kay-Dee then sounds out the three-letter word, “P-O-T.”
Kay-Dee used to go to school in Mitchell’s Plain, South Africa’s fourth largest township,
but she did not like her teacher there.
“She had a very thin stick,” says Kay-Dee, holding her index finger and thumb close
together, in front of her eye to make her point. “And she would hit us with it.”
This is Kay-Dee’s first year at Observatory Junior School and she loves her new
teacher.
“She likes to talk a lot and she isn’t rude like my old teacher,” says Kay-Dee.
Kay-Dee wants to be a doctor when she grows up. “In order to be a doctor, I must be
able to read the names of the people who come to see me, and that is why I come to
the Shine Centre.”
“Now, let’s have a go at writing this,” says Lynne, pointing at the picture of the pot.
Kay-Dee picks up her pencil but before she writes anything, she puts it back down. She
sounds the word out again and this time she claps as she sounds, “P-O-T.” Lynne claps
with her. Then Kay-Dee writes down “pot.”
Next Kay-Dee says a sentence about the pot. “Last night I cooked macaroni and
cheese in a pot.”
“Very good,” says Lynne, “you must give me the recipe!”
Kay-Dee— Shine Child
Cherry Gammelin

2. Soon Kay-Dee will only come to the Shine Centre when she wants to visit. She is
moving quickly through the programme. She has conviction in her voice and she is
building self-confidence.
“I like the Shine Centre because I can just pick up any book and read it,” Kay-Dee says,
with a matter-of-fact attitude. “I feel better when I can read and write.”
Kay-Dee— Shine Child
Cherry Gammelin