As class begins, several students wave wands in the air. One boy makes a handkerchief disappear. Another pulls a golf ball out of an empty jar. A few students are juggling. Many of the kids are in uniform: black pants, starched white shirts, bow ties and top hats.
Every Saturday at the College of Magic, in Cape Town, South Africa, children ages 10 and older learn how to perform tricks and illusions. The kids also go to regular school.
David Gore opened the College of Magic 26 years ago. He wanted to help children who seemed to need a little magic in their lives. Many of the students are poor. They live in small, crowded shacks and often go to bed hungry. For some, learning magic has been a way to stay out of trouble.
Gore believes that magic offers kids new ways of thinking and solving problems. They gain confidence when they perform tricks that amaze people or make them laugh. "You're able to do things other people would love to do, but can't," Hannah-Rose Smith, 11, told TFK.
The school's most important lesson may be in helping students see how they can succeed in the real world. Gore says that magic "gives children the courage to dream."
Phumile Dyasi, 17, has attended the school since he was 10. He has won magic contests and traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, to see magicians perform. He plans to become a professional magician, something he never would have dreamed of before going to magic school. "We make the impossible become possible," he says.