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www.thevillagenews.co.za
FROM THE EDITOR
18 November 2020
Education under stress in 2020
As the matrics of 2020 face their ultimate test, our special thoughts are with them. The additional pressure they have had to endure this year as a result of the lockdown has been extreme, but we have every confidence that their teachers and families have provided the support they need to meet the challenge. Of course, the situation has been difficult for all learners, from pre-school upwards, and the effect this disruptive year will have on them in the longer term is yet to emerge. According
to Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, 10% of children who were enrolled before lockdown have not returned to school.
the level of anger boiling under the surface, just waiting to be triggered. Significantly, it had absolutely nothing to do with the welfare of the already-stressed matrics at the school.
But there is another challenging aspect of education, especially in urban communities, which has recently been highlighted by the events at Brackenfell High School in Cape Town.
The question it raises, which we should all be grappling with, is what educational transformation really means. Certainly, most former Model C schools are now fully inclusive in terms of learner diversity, but what about the teaching staff and even more pertinently, what about the parents?
It is an issue with wide-ranging implications for society in South Africa way beyond 2020, a stark reminder of
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As educationist Dr Mary Metcalf points out, by focusing on the opportunities this demographic diversity offers us, we can gain new insights into one another’s cultures and values
and possibly form new friendships. This is when racial differences cease to matter, the happiness of the children is paramount and we begin to see each other simply as fellow human beings, and not the enemy. We believe that in the Overstrand we are already starting to move in this direction. Let’s make it happen… for all our sakes.
This is the good NEWS. -Ed
Ring-a-ring-a-rosies / a pocket full of posies...
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While the learners may form cross-cultural friendships at school, to what extent can these be extended into their after-school lives? Are they invited to parties at one another’s homes, do they have sleep-overs, do their families socialise with one another, especially when class differences are added to the mix?
By Murray Stewart murray.stewart49@gmail.com
people – a large portion of the then-known world’s population.
T
A few other pandemics popped up over the next few centuries (664 in England/Ireland), but the next viral tsunami was the Black Plague with its multiple sources of origin. One source is claimed to have come from the East. Some corpses of missionaries returning home from Mongolia along the regular trade routes were exhumed, analysed and found to be infected. With the fleas carried by rodents throughout the Empire’s spider web of trade routes, the plague flourished for 60 years, and continued to terrorise the world for the next four centuries.
he For Fact’s Sake columns are – according to Google and the Duck ’n Fiddle’s Explanation of Everything – based in truth. Occasionally however, names and places have been changed to protect innocent people involved. Atishoo! Atishoo! My kingdom for a tissue! Without getting too morbid on the subject of pandemics, poxes and plagues, some research concerning their origins proved interesting enough to share.
In 1348 about a million people died around Florence alone. That same year, Pope Clement VI, who was living in France, organised a pilgrimage to Rome, and proudly mustered up one million devotees for the 500-mile trek. Only 100 000 returned.
Apparently there are two main culprits: Bubonic – injected into the bloodstream, e.g. by flea bites, or Pneumonic – air-borne and inhaled. We’re currently grappling with the latter, but let’s take a look back at how the gods periodically culled humans with new variations of plagues.
By the end of the 14th century, 25 million deaths were recorded – about a third of Europe’s population. What became of the Mongolians is uncertain, but they obviously didn’t give up inventing things, because a more recent virus seems to have its roots in the same neck of the bamboo.
Man has suffered from deadly viruses since Adam, the first being recorded in Babylon in 3 000 BCE which wiped out a third of the local population. Then those Biblical plagues in Egypt were pretty rough going, but for the known world at the time, worse was yet to come.
About 45 plagues were recorded between 1500 and 1720, the most notorious being in London (1666). Until then, nearly 70 000 Londoners had perished, and as a preventative measure – I hate to even mention this – they burned all dogs, cats, mice and rats, hopefully with all their accompanying fleas.
Around the year naught, the Roman Empire was in full throttle, and they’d created traderoutes throughout Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor and beyond. A disease (bubonic), spread across the whole region via these routes, and lasted for 52 years, killing roughly 100 million
It was too little too late. In retaliation against this animal abuse, a conspiracy of cats set alight a shop in Pudding Lane which spread like... well, like wildfire. It raged for four days, reducing 80% of London to ashes. Other major outbreaks occurred in Marseilles (1720), and then of course there was the Spanish flu (1918), which didn’t even originate in Spain. Not directly involved in WWI, they were the only major European country able to maintain records of all the other countries’ deaths, and became the archive for information and statistics – hence the misleading label. Descriptions and drawings from 1720 show doctors wearing thick clothing, gloves, and masks with sewed-in ‘beaks’ containing fragrant herbs to ward off the evil smells that carried the pox. Currently, we’re encouraged to follow suit, although thick clothing is optional, and inhaling ‘fragrant herbs’ is fairly common these days anyway. But most of us have become accustomed to wearing a mask, reduce nose-picking, and to stop French-kissing strangers on impulse. Safety guidelines in various sports have been introduced globally, and one quaint precaution has bounced up in cricket. Occasionally we’ll see a fielder wearing two hats/caps. One belongs to the bowler, and for health/safety reasons, the umpire may no longer hold on to his cap while he’s bowling, as was the tradition since the Flintstones. Apparently, passing the virus on to a teammate is preferable. Well, that’s just not cricket! Anyone for tennis?
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