The Paradox of Peer Coaching

I once asked Claude whether 500 Rands a month is comparatively a good monthly salary, the response given was; “You'd be better off finding mangoes to sell on the side of a South African highway.”(Yes, actual response)  

In as much as this was truly unsettling, it raised an important question, then why do roughly 20 rogue characters willingly stay in prep their entire Yewan journey for what is shown to be such a pitiable wage? 

This opens the door to the discussion of one of  the most bizarre phenomena on campus.

Peer coaching. 

I became a peer coach, because I truly believed peer coaching would deepen my leadership skills and constructively build my own understanding of Chemistry. 

Yeah that’s not true.

What I have oddly noticed within myself and other study coaches is that most of us became study coaches because of the disappointingly simple reason that it was offered to us. There was by no means a deep or thorough thought process behind accepting the offer. Resultantly, it never came with particular prestige or glamour, no one presumably found glamour in the title or the gold.

So if the extrinsic incentive doesn’t seem particularly appealing, how does ALA still have a functioning Peer Coaching programme? I answered this question by taking to the back alleys  of ALA, and asking fellow peers, why are you still a coach?

What came was an interesting trend whereby most coaches agreed that coaching was an opportunity for them to just…. know their own subjects better. Some remarking that it was a way to apply “positive pressure” on themselves or to “express their ideas in a way that people can comprehend them”. One intriguing  coach frankly told me “I don’t gain anything from being a coach”  but it brought them fulfillment from being in such an environment where they could make a difference in the one thing all ALA  students care about, academics. 

Notice a pattern?

A deeper reflection on this would lead to a fascinating conclusion; that their is virtually little external value of coaching  to the coach, there is no sizable financial or institutional benefit that one obtains. Yet just as we have done with PC dinners, chanting culture and the whole  of  SAFCORP as an SE, ALA students have somehow made great meaning out of what has been fundamentally shoved in their faces. Using their own resources, abilities, and time to do so (maybe not SAFCORP though).

Surprisingly, this does reflect very well when you walk across the prep rooms every day from 7-8PM. The energy, the passion, the footwork, truly does fascinate you (or maybe its just the Chemistry study group).

So just know, study coaches have virtually created an entire  program out of their own intrinsic motivation to do so, which requires so much more effort than many expect. So if you see a study coach leaving their prep room after a long day, drop them a “Well done” or a "I'm going to name my firstborn after you”(a bit more optional), because you never know who’s in the trenches and who’s in the process of digging one.

And yes, the N1 mango sellers might be making more than we are, but none of them gain the satisfaction of enjoying the collective success of their group after banging an assessment.

So the struggle must continue.

A luta continua