At my son's school....

General Academics Education
1

Sorry about the Afrikaans - but this really should be under education.

I received an sms from the High School (Marais Viljoen) on Thursday, encouraging the kids to attend the rugby game that will be broadcasted on TV, in return they’ll receive 10% on their Math results for this term. I was disgusted and told my (rugby illiterate and disinterested) son that he cant go (not that he was all that keen anyway). He was a bit put out because of the perceived loss of 10% on his exam, but generally got over it pretty quickly.

Now its hit the newspapers…

Kinders hoor: ‘Kom na rugby, kry punte’ 2010-06-07 22:27

Sommige ouers is woedend oor dié wortel wat Saterdag voor skoliere se neuse gehou is om hulle aan te moedig om die FNB Classic Clash-rugbywedstryd tussen die Hoërskool Marais Viljoen en die Hoërskool Monument in Krugersdorp by te woon.

Beeld het klagtes van ouers gekry.

In die geval van Marais Viljoen is aan leerlinge gesê hulle sal tien punte by hul wiskunde-uitslae kry.

Monument het leerlinge 5% beloof vir volgende semester se eerste toets, ongeag watter vak dit is.

’n Ontstelde ouer het gesê: “Op dié manier word sport verafgod en lyk dit of die boodskap uitgestuur word dat die akademie maar daarvoor verkoop kan word.”

Nog ’n ouer het gesê kinders kan nie integriteit aanleer as hulle meen hulle kan omgekoop word nie.

“Ek het groot begrip vir die dilemma waarmee skole worstel om vandag se kinders te motiveer, maar om dié wortel voor hulle te hou, is nie reg nie.”

Daar was ook besware van ’n ouer wat meen kinders kan begin dink hulle hoef nie meer hard te werk nie omdat daar ander maniere is om hoër punte te kry.

“En watse motivering is punte vir dié kandidate wat in elk geval baie goed doen?”

Mnr. Sampie Pienaar, voorsitter van die beheerliggaam van Marais Viljoen, het gesê dit was heel toevallig dat albei skole leerlinge op dié manier wou probeer motiveer.

Hulle neem kennis van ouers se besware.

“Die werklikheid is egter dat dit nie vandag werk om net vir ’n kind te sê daag asseblief op nie.

“Hulle kyk jou snaaks aan en vra: ‘Rêrig?’

“Ons het gedink dit is ’n innoverende metode en het dit tien punte gemaak omdat dit nie werklik ’n noemenswaardige verskil aan die kinders se punte kan maak nie.”

Volgens Pienaar het die skool uit sy pad gegaan om van die dag ’n sukses te probeer maak. Bykomende busvervoer is selfs vir hulle gereël.

“Ons aanvaar ons het dalk een of twee ouers ontstel, maar in werklikheid het ons die kinders op dié manier bereik en uiteindelik meer as 950 op die paviljoen gehad.”

Mnr. Christo Swart, voorsitter van Monument se beheerliggaam, het gesê dié motivering is geensins “normale praktyk” nie.

Die wedstryd was volgens hom vir die skole baie belangrik omdat dit uitgesaai is. “Ons wou geesdrif by die leerlinge wek en sorg dat dit vir almal ’n mooi dag is.”

Daar is ook besluit om leerlinge so aan te spoor omdat dit tans bloktyd is en hulle nie almal by die skool is nie.

Die Gautengse onderwysdepartement het gesê hy gaan die saak ondersoek.

http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Kinders-hoor-Kom-na-rugby-kry-punte-20100607

Opinions/Comments?

2

Makes me ill. Can’t really believe the schools thought they would get away with such shit.

3

I’m allmost sure that contradicts the education act. and, i bet, when the time comes for the extra points to be dished out, the school will come up with some reason not to give it.

4

This is fraud. The headmasters should be charged and imprisoned.

5

Perhaps the full foolishness of this scheme will sink in if one proposes that they should turn it around and offer kids exemptions from PT classes and RI and assemblies in the form of free periods if they achieve excellent marks in mathematics and science. The unstated assumption underpinning this whole ill-advised initiative is that it’s great to be a good sportsperson but not so good to be a nerd. Sportspeople get to sign autographs and be famous while nerds aren’t wanted.

'Luthon64

6

My first thought is - follow the money. Somewhere someone is making money out of having more boudjies on the paviljoen. i don’t know who yet, but when seemingly intelligent people do obviously stupid things is usually about money. Maybe a boereworsroll-sindicate

Daar is ook besluit om leerlinge so aan te spoor omdat dit tans bloktyd is en hulle nie almal by die skool is nie.
My second thought is - Hmmm, what is this bloktyd thing. Is it not time given to students to study because it's exam-season?
7

Bill Gates said “Be kind to your classroom nerd, he may one day be your boss!”

Th

8

sorry, I was going to say that this is just the other end of the motivational shit they use at school…carrot and stick. We used to get moered if we didn’t pitch and usually the prefects took great pleasure to ‘discipline’ us…

9

ja, in my school, you HAD to partake in some extracurricular activities. i suck at sport, so i did speech and drama instead.
some sports events were purely pitch of you will, but some were very clearly, if you are not there, you will kak. so much so, that you teacher ticks you off for being there or not.
but i must say, those were held on school days, so if you werent there, you were skipping school, and then the fur wil fly.

10

I was in an Afrikaans school, so had to take English second language. This was extremely useless to me, as I could speak, read and write English of a higher level than my English teacher. (she was literally one of those: “class, stand after your chairs” people, and once made the statement that Eliza from Pygmallion “live with two very illegible bachelors…” :-X )
The deal we struck was that instead of attending useless English, I could spend the time in the art class or working on the school newspaper. Win-Win situation - but I still had to write the tests, do the assignments etc etc in English. No hand-outs in terms of marks.
One simply cannot go around telling kids that they will get stuff (in this case better marks) if they do something completely unrelated to the ‘reward’. What I’m trying to say is that, One doesn’t get rewarded for being good in math if you won a sports tournament. And, agreed with Hermes - serious action should be taken.

11

It was a poor choice to use maths as a carrot; especially considering the requests last year for maths marks to be adjusted upwards.
Giving away jock-points is not helping the cause. Some educators seem to think the bell curve is a percussion instrument.

12

There are two further background aspects to this that are worth noting. The first, and perhaps less important of these has a practical flavour related to the sustainability of an individual’s livelihood as a function of their education. In most cases, a sporting talent will be good for a decade or two because it diminishes with the age of the individual. In contrast, a sound education benefits the individual for the remainder of their life because it cannot help but open doors both literally and metaphorically. With this in mind, the oddness of the educational priorities becomes quite striking.

The second aspect concerns those priorities and the subterfuges we employ to make them palatable. We are content, even pleased, to accept the idea that some among us excel at sport while others are uncoordinated or clumsy. We will happily laud the sporting talents of an individual and pour adulation on him or her for having such. We will vigorously encourage the development of such sporting talent among the promising young and be entirely at ease with the idea that some people are naturally better than others at a given sport. Meanwhile, it’s a strict no-no to assume a similar gradation of talent when it comes to cerebral matters. To declare openly that child A is very obviously way more intelligent than child B is to invite heated criticism from others for some imagined discriminatory practice or assertion.

“You can do whatever you really set your mind to,” children are often told, fostering the illusion that all children are intellectually equal. Well, they aren’t all equal, as any observant adult with a bent for honesty knows, just as their sporting aptitudes aren’t all equal. Pigeonholing all kids as intellectually of a kind is one of the more dim-witted and damaging fictions that educators have pulled from their pseudoscientific hats. It puts pressure on the less able ones to keep pace with the rest, and at the same time stultifies the development of the more gifted ones, all for the sake of preserving a misguided idea that social belonging and uniformity come first – an idea that is nothing more than a hidebound effort to maintain the ongoing celebration of mediocrity that we have grown so fond of. One must quite seriously wonder why there is this common hypocrisy between physical and academic prowess. It needs rooting out.

'Luthon64

13

Schools have long been recognised by the liberal left aka those who can think for themselves, as the “great equalizer” aka the “destroyer of individualism” and creativity. That children are often able to rise above this is a miracle. Children are incredibly creative before school and quickly realise that through socialization and peer pressure, being ‘different’ isn’t cool. I personally almost came to blows with the principal of my youngest son’s school when he tried to put him down academically and when we had him tested by school psychologists, their report said he was one of the brightest and most balanced kids they’d tested…today he represents SA in Water polo; has graduated with distinction, and earns R80K per month etc etc. Wonder what his principal earns today?

14

Well, GCG, my experience was the same except I completely and utterly ignored all the threats that ever came my way because of these. Sport days at school were bunked, with my parents permission, and any kind of “be there or else” activity (like induction days) I utterly failed to pitch for.

The result? Nothing, confirming my suspicion that these were usually so disorganised that nobody took the time to notice I wasn’t there.

So, you can imagine what my response to this might be…

THIS IS BULLSHIT! If the school has trouble getting kids to their sporting events I think it simply indicates that they are not interested. Period. But no, as the saying goes “The beatings will continue until morale improves!”, in this case, if you’re not excited about this at all, we’ll fake it by giving you free marks, surely then you’ll be motivated!

I hate sport though, maybe it’s just me, but this kinda shit just always seems to go hand-in-hand… When I was in school it was “do sport” or be “punished”, smacked into a classroom, told to STFU, and forced to do extra work (not pleasant). I decided this was a suitable amount of BS, and promptly joined the chess team. There I would “play chess”, a thinly veiled form sitting around and chatting with your friends. Didn’t do much for my street cred but seriously, I didn’t give a shit. Quite honestly, I think this is the optimal attitude for a young person in the face of such rife adult stupidity and schoolyard peer pressure. Just don’t give a crap, you’ll be happier.

15

Forgive me, but this made me think of a lame joke.
Every morning when the English teacher gave the Afrikaans students an English lecture she greeted them as follows:
“Good morning class!” and every time only one boy would get up out of the whole class to greet the teacher in return.
This happened time and again until she decided to call him up to her desk and ask him loud enough for everyone to hear:
“Why is it that every time I greet the whole class, only you stand up to greet me?”

He replied to the teacher in English: “It are 'cause I are the only person here what’s name are Klaas!”

16

This has me completely flabbergasted. It is just so retarded, so moronic, and so wrong in so many ways. Who are these fuckwits running this school? One can only hope that the “Gautengse onderwysdepartement” steps in and disallows the award of rugby attendance marks.

It would have to be rugby, too. What is it with this judging how good a school is by how well its first rugby team performs? Amongst both English and Afrikaans people. I mean really - what proportion of any matric class can actually make a living after school by playing rugby? Poor Klaas won’t be able to, AND he plugged his matric maths because his acceptable grades leading up to matric were all because of “attendance marks”. So Klaas is doomed with a capital F. Maybe he could make a living ( along with Julius Malema ) using his woodwork skills to build cheap furniture. Eish.

[ Disclaimer. I may be a geek and a nerd and whatever, but I did play firsts at rugby for my school way back when boys were men and all that. :wink: And - Cyghost - nyah nyah nyah, the Bulls came romping home. :stuck_out_tongue: ]

17

meh

:smiley: