There are 10 stubborn myths about education that South Africans cling to. It is time to name and dispel them.
One, that a chancellor is a powerful university job. It is painful to watch media houses celebrating ‘the head of the university’ with each such appointment.
Actually, it is a non-paying job and you do little else than show up at graduations and cap students.
Of course, for the individual involved, being a chancellor carries some status and is, if nothing else, a recognition of public standing.
But it is a miserable job otherwise, pretend smiling five or six times a year as you cap thousands of degreed students.
You have nothing else to do as the now memorable statement by retired judge [Johann] Kriegler recently said of a chancellor’s job: your role is ‘to be, not to do.’
Two, that getting nine or more distinctions in matric means you’re super smart.
Actually, these are among the weakest students I teach at university. They are one-dimensional, uncreative youngsters with great capacity for memorisation but little ability to think.
If I had my way, these drones would not be accepted into university despite all those glittering platelets on their high school blazers.
The modern workplace requires out-of-the-box thinkers, not these one-track mind automatons.
Three, that finishing a doctorate in two years means you’re something special.
This is nothing to be proud of. It means your dissertation is undercooked, intellectually speaking.
Take that silly grin off your graduation face; you’re not smart, you’re impatient.
A PhD is an experience not a sprint, a time to think deeply and read broadly about theory, method and the expansive literature on your topic.
Four, that students in technical and vocational education “work with their hands” while those with science or humanities degrees presumably work with their heads.
Even if you do not have a degree in brain science, common sense should tell you that all work is “minds on”. The hands do not move by themselves.
A surgeon works with her hands as does the electrician. Both require an active and alert mind to do their jobs well.
Five, that state schools should remain Christian schools. After all, “they” (Muslims, Hindus, other believers) chose to come to this school which was always a Christian school.
This is the most un-Christian thing one can claim. Christianity, if anything, is about inclusion and the embrace of those outside the circle of one’s own faith.
But all of that is irrelevant since these are state schools, finish and klaar; they belong to all of us and therefore you should not run your school assembly on a Monday as if it is an extension of Sunday church.
Six, that preschool or foundation phase teachers should be women. Few would say the silent part out loud: why would a man want to mix with young children? Paedophile? What a disgraceful thought.
We have fortunately changed the notion of years ago that nurses were women and doctors, men.
We also need to change those outdated views and accept that a young man might also find professional challenge and fulfilment in teaching younger children.
Seven, that teachers have an easy life with all those school holidays they enjoy. You should try this job sometime and you will beg for mercy.
There are any number of reports available about stress and burnout among teachers, especially in disadvantaged schools in unsettled communities.
They work late every day and use vacation time to catch up on preparation and marking. Holidays my foot. But the perception remains.
Eight, that being the youngest person to graduate from high school or get a degree means you are exceptional.
Perhaps, but more likely you are emotionally immature for the grade or the achievement even if you appear to be intellectually capable of mastering the subject or the discipline.
Too many such young people have turned out to be misfits in school and society because they did not progress with the grade.
Nine, that black children are less capable academically because of their poor command of English.
There’s a term for this nonsense; it’s called cultural bigotry or, if you prefer, racism.
Imagine your English or Afrikaans speaking child having to learn in Tshivenda from day one.
Get it? A child’s academic ability has nothing to do with their capacity to speak English (or Afrikaans). Get that into your thick skull quickly or you will do enormous damage to other people’s children.
Ten, that generally politicians are self-promoting, egocentric, and corrupt individuals who could not care less about the poor. At last, we have found common ground.
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