Painting by Lehan Winifred Ramsay

Story by Lehan Winfred Ramsay

I used to teach these disabled kids. They lived in a hospital. Really I didn’t teach them, because they couldn’t learn. I just did things with them, and they learned because they did things. After that I taught these street kids. I had to teach them something real, something important; that was my job. But I had to do this with them in a way that they would accept. So we made stuff together.

These kids didn’t have a future, and people who don’t have a future don’t have a reason. An investment, a motivation. There’s a real difference in fronting up to a room full of kids in a school and teaching them. The whole system is on your side. And theirs. Does that mean it’s easy? School is not easy. We forget as we grow up how hard school is.

I used to teach these primary school kids. I really, really wanted them to learn. So I gave them each a set of really good pencils. 6B. 4B. 2B.