i love this brief story by my friend Zukisani which shows that despite the uneven playing field that so many people start on, it is possible to succeed… but at the same time reminding us that we would do better to be leveling out the playing field as much as possible:

The year is 2005 and I was a freshman at UCT. Registered to do Electrical and Computer Engineering. In fact let’s back it up a bit.

In 2004 I was doing my Matric at Holy Cross High School, Umtata. In that year I was one of three students to matriculate with a distinction from my school. It was confirmed in my mind I was smart.

Then came UCT. I remember my very first computer science lecture. While I was having a hard time grasping what the lecturer was saying there were a number of white guys leaving because the lecture was too basic for them. That made me feel a bit stupid.

As the year progressed things did not get any better. Tuts made me feel extra stupid. “Create a class that has these variables and these methods” the tutor said to me this one time and I remember nodding my heard while inside I am wondering “What the hell is a class?!” I failed computer science that year. Almost dropped it in fact to do plain Electrical Engineering. I just could not seem to grasp the concepts. Overtime I got so demotivated that I hardly try because I believed this was too hard for me.

I got academically excluded that year from UCT. That was a hard hit. I went back home defeated and with my future unclear to say the least. After appealing my exclusion I was taken back. That December I took a computer science (java) text book and taught myself how to program from scratch without pressure. By the time 2006 began I knew the fundamentals and knew how to code. It is from this point in time that I, to this day, started considering myself as a software developer. That year I passed both my first and second semester computer science courses with 70s percentage wise. I never struggled again as far as computer science is concerned.

Though when I got to the work place I felt like I had to prove myself around my white colleagues after a few months I found my footing and have not looked back ever since. I now am an Intermediate Java Developer who makes websites and android apps for fun in my spare time.

In short what I have come to learn is that those guys that left the computer science lecture room those many years ago were not smarter than me. While I only had access to “what is a mouse?” computer knowledge (not even this at high school was available) they were learning how to code for years before they entered university. Opportunity gave them a head start. Nothing more, nothing less. This is part of the reason why I want to do a Master’s degree on how programming can be introduced to disadvantaged communities from an early stage to the children. In fact I am teaching my 10 year old daughter how to code even now so that if she ever thought of taking her father’s path by the time she gets to university she would not experience what I experienced in my early university years.

[For those who are wanting to check out Zukisani’s work, here is a link to his page]