To the parent who took and uploaded the video of the apparent racial segregation at CurroRoodeplaat.
Dear Sir/Madam, I wish you could understand the amount of innocent people whom you have hurt through your social media attack on CurroRoodeplaat. Each child currently attending the school, all parents of the learners enrolled, every teacher at the school and all future learners attending the school.
Dear parents, you did not chose to become an educator like we did. We love, respect and cherish children (no matter race). We truly believe that children are the future and that we can change the lives of many children. Children who might not have parents or love in their lives. Working with children every day, we look far beyond skin colour. We love. We teach. We open minds and we touch hearts.
After looking at the video posted, I couldn’t help reading some of the comments. I noticed a lot of people commenting on the video labelling CurroRoodeplaat as racist. Bear in mind that in the same comment I see the following: “Only a fool would let his enemy educate his children…”, “…are we REALLY saying they can’t band together and start their own quality private school???”. Shocking comments from white and black people. There is a saying that goes… take it from who it comes, need I say more?
Unfortunately the people who get hurt in the process sometimes can’t even begin to explain the damage caused to them and their families. Damage that you can’t comprehend after posting an illegal video and labelling it as racism.
Not only have you hurt this school’s reputation and everybody close to it to an extent that you cannot comprehend, you also fed hate and racism in our land (the very thing you apparently don’t want to see).
I saw so many comments from people whom just wanted to give their opinion just because they have the right to comment on an illegal video when in actual fact they don’t know a single thing about a school system. We as educators have studied 4–7 years and have a great deal of experience, yet you act as though you know best.
You see I am a High School teacher at a public school and our system works as follows: We have register classes which we attend each morning and these classes manage all extracurricular activities and fundraising which is compulsory for the whole school. These register classes have a mix of Afrikaans and English learners (Dual Medium). The Grade 8 & 9 pupils are separated by language meaning that those who prefer English are together in one class and those who prefer Afrikaans are together in another class and move from one class to another together after register.
Seeing that your incompetence is forcing me to mention skin colour; the Afrikaans classes are mostly white learners with about 3 black learners and in the English classes there’s about three white learners.
Why not Dual Medium?
You see we have so much work to go through with the learners in a short period of time (learners at this age are not yet bilingual), otherwise everything would have to be repeated every period, cutting educational time in half. Let’s take Technology for Grade 9’s as an example. The subject is divided into 4 Chapters to enhance the portability of subjects obtained in Gr 10-12. One out of four subjects work is studied per term. Can you imagine the workload? Let me break it down for you:
Chapter 1: Structures / Term 1 / 51 School Days
Chapter 2: Mechanical Systems and Control / Term 2 / 51 School Days
Chapter 3: Electrical and Electronical Systems / Term 3 / 52 School Days
Chapter 4: Processing / Term 4 / 43
School days Subjects: Civil Technology, Mechanical Technology, Electrical Technology and EGD.
In grade 10 after the learners have chosen their subject we switch to Dual Medium. The teacher doesn’t have to repeat everything in both languages but rather speaks in English or Afrikaans while displaying the opposite language’s transparency (or other media) containing the same information, then switch the two with the next topic. It is not in the Foundation Phase and Intermediate Phase children’s best interest to Dual Medium all the subjects. Responsibility and direction is developing to help dual Medium work and yet get through the work. Throughout my English and Afrikaans classes, I care, respect and discipline everyone the same. Grade 8 & 9 tests are Dual Medium preparing learners for Dual Medium education.
Allow me to use the following hypothetical scenario:
Should I take my Afrikaans class (A) and my English speaking class (B) for an educational visit to the museum for history and the teacher next door takes her Afrikaans class (C) and her English class (D) to the same museum for the day: Firstly we would have to obtain assistant teachers to assist as there have to be at least two teachers per class of learners. The teacher next door also has to ensure that she has two teachers/assistant teachers per class to accompany the learners on their visit to the museum. Teachers are held responsible and accountable for the class they are assigned to, meaning that you cannot mix the 25 learners times the 4 classes. The teachers would then have 100 learners, no discipline and no order. Who is responsible for learner X? No one because we are all here together. Let’s go into the tuck shop. In you go, all 100 of you. Which teacher would be responsible to assist should a problem arise? Don’t know, let’s all attend and leave the rest alone resulting in no order. No list to check because you cannot keep an eye on learner X in a bunch of 100 learners whom are all very eager and excited, running around. If I have my class and teacher next door has her class under control, no matter whether it is class A, B, C or D – with class lists, medical info, parent contact details we can look after and care for the kids. Care for the children in the way we should, the way society expects us to do it, the way we need to and in the way we were taught. This has nothing to do with race or gender, unfortunately language divides some of the children for a little while but for good and logistical reasons. Anybody with children will know that it is difficult for one or even two people to cope with the needs of 25 or more learners.
Should the class visit a tuck shop, one teacher would be responsible for keeping an eye on one or two things while the other teacher attends to the children inside the shop. This basic logical precaution applies to everything and everywhere else during the trip. Examples: Going to the bathroom, eating, boarding the bus, listening to tour guides and medical prescriptions. Again when the learners board the bus, the teacher responsible for that specific class ensures that all learners are on the bus (hence separating the class from the other). Whilst the other teachers will be busy attending to their classes needs, check that they are in line and do not run away while no one is looking.
I am sure that the apparent segregation after getting off the bus had a very logistical reason. I’m sure sometime that day everybody met up again and then they had to separate CLASSES again. In the video you can clearly see that there are white kids in the English class and black kids in the Afrikaans class.
I’m not a Foundation Phase (Grade R-3) teacher, yet my logic tells me it would be in the learners’ best interest to place them in a class where they are attended to in their home language or language of preference.
They can then study the other language in due time together, facing the same grammar and literature problems at the same time and giving the teacher time to address these language studies with the 25 learners assigned to her during class time. This allows these learners to grow and when they are ready to switch to Dual Medium education. The learners do not have a problem or hate the kids in the class next door, it is the older people with issues who do. Please stop poisoning young minds with the opinions that you have on observations you make in 2 minutes.
I have sympathy with CurroRoodeplaat, it is so sad to see that inconsiderate people can cause so much grief. I will be enrolling my son at CurroRoodeplaat the year after next to start Grade 1. These people are not only hurting the reputation of the school and everybody currently involved but also people planning to enrol there in the future as well. I am appalled after seeing a few comments of people demanding the school to shut down. What is the matter with mankind? There are so many real problems in our schools that needs urgent attendance. Yet let’s rather create a problem for the school and then demand that it be shut down, shut down while there are not enough schools.
I pray that people who feed racism with their narrow minds, stop and see the effect they are having on society, the people who care about their children but do not see how their choices are affecting their own children and the future of our country. I know that my son will never be a racist because he lives in a loving home and if he ever dwells off the path we will be there to help him. I hope to one day have the privilege of teaching at CurroRoodeplaat should there be a vacancy. We truly believe it is an exceptional school. If you had all the logistical information on the school system you would understand why I say this, I cannot share 4 years studies and 7 years’ experience and knowledge with you in a letter. I am sure that after the Department of Education, the DA, the Youth League, the MEC and everybody who need to, do their rightful investigation of the matter they will find what we already know. Unfortunately the whole process is very exhausting and damaging to everybody involved.
Please STOP ripping apart every good person with good intentions and higher education specialising in the field when you do not have the information required to understand the fundamental logistics on the topic. I will pray for you, pray that you find peace in your heart and pray that your eyes will open to see the things you haven’t yet thought of.
Sir/Madam, if you really are loving, concerned parents who has your child/children’s best interest at heart you would have made an urgent appointment with the principle of the school and discussed your concerns with him instead of launching a full blown social media attack on the school. If you were still unhappy after meeting with the principle there are so many people whom would have heard your voice and investigated through the correct, reasonable and respectable channels.
I know in my heart that CurroRoodeplaat is being falsely accused and that this might just be the work of a parent or two who are unhappy with something else and this is the result. If only you could be in the shoes of a teacher for one day…
Please just stop. Stop hurting everybody involved. Stop hurting educators. Stop making excuses for your selfish actions. Stop labelling. Stop spreading illegal video tapes and labelling them for something which they are not. Stop bullying CurroRoodeplaat. Stop hurting our kids and last but not least stop hurting your own child/children.
“If only closed minds came with closed mouths.”
Concerned teacher.
Also read:
Private school says alleged video of racial segregation is false
White parents behind Curro segregation
Curro denies racial segregation
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