Popular North teacher retires after blissful 43 years of service
Adri concluded her teaching career at Curro Roodeplaat, but explained that she had worked at numerous other schools in Pretoria over the years.
Many believe that if you truly do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.
These words resonate with 65-year-old Adri Janse van Rensburg from Pretoria north, who retired on 9 December after teaching primary school learners for 43 years.
Adri started teaching in 1977 and told Rekord about the absolute passion she had from the beginning, teaching grade 3 learners for so many years.
“I’ve always preferred to teach primary school learners, for the longest time I’ve taught the grade 3 learners, but I have taught grade 1s, grade 2s and grade 5 learners as well.
“They are the sweetest, most innocent little beings, and I absolutely adored being around them every day,” Adri explained.
Adri concluded her teaching career at Curro Roodeplaat, but explained that she had worked at numerous other schools in Pretoria over the years.
From Laerskool Rachel de Beer, Laerskool Generaal Nicolaas Smit, Laerskool Tuinrand, Laerskool Danie Malan and eventually she moved to Florauna, which later became Curro Roodeplaat.
When asked what her favourite thing about being a teacher was, she told Rekord that seeing technological advancements change the education sector was fun, but also challenging.
“I can’t explain to you how much I learned during lockdown. Over the years, I’ve seen many things change, and become digital. But the lockdown presented so many additional challenges.
“I have younger colleagues who embraced every change and helped me with whatever I needed. Above all, I really enjoyed seeing how quickly the children adapted to their new normal. We forget sometimes how intelligent and adaptable they are. I saw first-hand how independent they became and how in a positive way all of it affected them.”
Adri and her husband Karel, who is also retired, plan to live a life of excitement and adventure.
“We plan to get a nice caravan, with a built-in shower, basin and toilet, and we want to paint the country red, visit a few nice places and camp wherever we want,” they told Rekord.
Adri’s dream destination is Greece, as she really appreciates the family-orientated culture and food, and would like to take some time during her retirement to travel there with her husband.
She told Rekord that although it was really hard to think of one thing she didn’t like about teaching, she said that playground patrol was probably at the top.
“I never really liked it, and after the lockdown it became compulsory to do it every day. But that was about it, I adored my job. I even liked coaching different sport types over the years.”
Adri believes that every child is exceptional and every child is completely unique and different, but that discipline and routine structures need to be in place to enable a young child to reach their full potential.
“I had a very successful lollipop chart that I used to motivate children rather than punish them for misbehaving. It was utterly effective. Almost all of them would aim to behave well at all times, do their homework, behave in class and adhere to all of the other rules in the classroom because of that lollipop chart,” she said.
“I believe strongly in getting to know a child. If you understand the ins and outs of a child’s heart, brain and personal life, you can have the most well-behaved, sweetest and hard-working learner in your class.”
Adri feels very proud of her 43-year career in educating young minds. Even though she looks forward to retirement, she admits that she fell in love with her role and feels like teaching and education is her calling.
“There is no other job I would have wanted to do ever. I was placed here to teach. I will definitely be missing my career and my colleagues, but look forward to seeing more of my husband, two daughters and grandson,” she concluded.
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