No one at the Amstelhof Primary School quite understood what their Principal, Claude de Jager, tried to explain when he returned to Paarl, South Africa, after his first visit to New Jersey in 2004. On his second visit, he brought his Deputy Principal David Abrahams, and a Principal from Bergendal Primary Nabeelah Abrahams, to see for themselves.

They were welcomed into eleven schools in New Jersey, many by the same teachers who had visited them in South Africa with one of the four SAI Study Tours. Over the weekend, they would accompany two of this year's participants to Philadelphia and Atlantic City, and during the week they would visit the Bradford School, Livingston Park Elementary, Imani Park Transitional Housing Project, McKeown Elementary School, Livingston High School, Colonial Park School, Union School, Hubbard School, Thomas E. Harrington Middle School, and the Marion P. Thomas and Greater New Brunswick Charter Schools.

On one visit Claude returns to the Lawton. C. Johnson Middle School in Summit, NJ, this time with David. They had spent the evening in the home of LCJMS science teacher Karen Cotter, and are warmly greeted in the morning over coffee and pastries by the full faculty. David's eyes open wide as he recalls their trip the day before to NYC with its rushing trains, a film crew shooting a scene for 'Law and Order', Times Square, ground zero, and Macy's. 

Their hosts for the day include Steffany Baptiste, a Rutgers GSE doctoral student who has been on all four SAI Study Tours, and the school's Principal, Dr. Stanik, who proudly shows a DVD prepared in the school's own video production facility commemorating the 50 years of service by Mr. Johnson, for whom the school was named earlier in the year.

Claude compares Summit to his school with a similar number of students (750) but only 18 teachers. As Principal, "you have to run around to raise funds and you need to teach" in addition to training and motivating his staff, he says. His library is nothing like the multi-media resource center serving Summit with its two full-time educational specialists. He has dial-up access to the Internet for only one PC, and outdated books for Math and Science which are two of his largest academic challenges.

Claude and David begin a walking tour through several special program classes for 8th graders: industrial arts where students are assembling wooden bridges from computer models, graphics where they cut vinyl for ink engravings, computer skills where they use Excel and graphic design software, and problem solving where students were planning a trip itinerary.

Before entering Ms. Schwarzmann's Language Arts class, they must line up with her 6th grade students and tell her something descriptive to fill in the statement "Aunt Millie's cat is a ___ cat". The lesson this morning is about adjectives. They admire the way children can be grouped around shared tables for cooperative learning experiences as well as the use of an overhead projector, 'mystery bags' with an object to be described, and portfolio organizers where students keep all of their lessons. "We don't have these," he says. David notes how easily the teacher employs cognitive, audio, tactile and kinetic methods in one class.

Science class with Ms. Cotter also includes a special education assistant and a media assistant. The students recap the metric stepladder from milli- to hecto- before donning protective goggles and retrieving lab equipment for measuring liquids. David wants an egg timer like the one the teacher uses to help students know how long they have for each exercise.

After seeing two physical education classes, Claude emphasizes "What can we take back? We can't have a gym like this, but we can do certain things." His stories help him bring hope to his teaching staff: their students will have a better future because of their efforts. David and Nabeelah will have seen for themselves the possibilities, learned from new methods, gained ideas that they can apply.

Claude summarizes that the most successful outcomes from his relationship with Rutgers have been what his school has gained from the Study Tour teachers' expertise, from programs like the Literacy through Photography this year and the Math blocks program and parent workshops last year, and from the continuing generous support that communities in New Jersey have shown in donating supplies, TV monitors, athletic equipment, books and furniture.

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