Dr Mathews Phosa inspires Curro Nelspruit learners with his poetry
Curro Nelspruit’s Grade Nines and 10s were both delighted and inspired by Dr Mathews Phosa’s recent visit to the school.
The legendary Dr Mathews Phosa visited the Grade Nines and 10s of Curro Nelspruit on Friday March 8 to read them some poems from his book Deur die oog van die naald.
Two of Phosa’s own poems from his book, ’n Doppie op Malmesbury and Talle tonge, are being taught to the Grade Nine and 10 learners respectively in the Afrikaans first additional language classes.
Curro Nelspruit teacher Jolandie Ehrke started organising Phosa’s visit to the school last year already. She said she knew Phosa was from the Lowveld and thought it would be amazing if he could come to Curro to recite the two poems being taught to these two grades. “He immediately accepted the invitation when I reached out, and he flew all the way from Johannesburg just to visit the learners for an hour before flying back,” said Ehrke.
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“It was incredible, and the children loved that they had the chance to meet such an inspiring leader. 90% of the learners are fourth or fifth Afrikaans language speakers, and so is Dr Phosa. Afrikaans is a difficult language to learn, so what better opportunity than to have him come and speak to the learners and recite the poetry he wrote that is being taught to them.”
After Phosa had read his poems, some learners took the opportunity to ask him some questions about politics, about what inspired him to be a leader, about his poetry and his advice to the youth. Each answer Phosa gave saw the two grades cheering and applauding enthusiastically.
After the question-and-answer session, Phosa gave the school 16 of his books, and the children all queued to get a photo with the inspiring poet, leader and businessman.
