INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

oundaries help them regulate their own behavior, which at times gets out of hand.” She
was interested in incorporating these practices particularly among a new group of teenage
girls who had just moved into the center a year prior, and wanted to ensure a smooth
integration. From my own point of observation, it was difficult to determine at what point
behavior would be deemed out-of-hand. Among the teenage boys especially, there was a
fair amount of jokingly initiated rough play, which would result in the victim of a
surprise attack looking at me with slightly annoyed eyes asking, “do you see this guy?” A
lot of the rough physical play seemed to be within the lines of culturally and
developmentally appropriate friendship, but it was difficult to determine when it was not.
Discipline was managed in a variety of ways at the center, largely determined by
the severity of the offense. On my first extended interaction with Pastor Mike during the
trip, he greeted me at his office by saying “Welcome to the headmaster’s office. Usually
this means you’re in big trouble.” Having Pastor Mike address the issue one-on-one in his
office was typically reserved for the most severe offenses, however, where repeat
incidents would risk expulsion. A month prior to my arrival, one boy who had been at the
center had been expelled and had to live with his brother. “We gave him multiple
warnings,” Pastor Mike told me, “but he kept being more and more aggressive at school.”
He paused. “This is one area where what I do here differs from how I would raise my
own children in an at-home setting. But when I have almost fifty other kids, they might
be in danger if I don’t do something like that. Or they’ll think that this behavior is okay
or that our threats are empty, and if you have numerous children acting this way, then it
gets really out of hand. But we made sure he had somewhere to go that was reasonably
safe.”
109