The School Corridor Tatler

All children are born entrepreneurs. They are curious, experimental, innovative and talented. They enjoy taking charge and showing off their skills and competencies. Yet, we force them to be passive onlookers at school assemblies and other school events. Even when we receive guests at the school, the learners often just interact with them from a distance. Often the teachers are bogged down with all the planning details while the bored learners direct their pent up energies to amuse themselves in ways which are not appreciated by the adult folk around them. The question begs: why are we not allowing the 'Steve Jobs' to help us with the organizational planning so that we can reserve our energies for the classroom?   Jacques Schouw, the sound and lighting engineer of Muizenberg High school with Mel September, Hospitality educator I can see the possibility of an entrepreneurial- driven Programme embedded in a school's infrastructural curriculum framework because there are scho...

The pitch of our Women’s Day celebrations at our district was perfect. The setting was glamorous, the mood was jovial and the speakers were brilliant. Walton, Mike, Myrtle and others enjoying the fun Are we heeding the clarion call to eradicate violence as a key barrier?   We had three speakers. Valdi van Reenen-Le Roux, Director of Trauma Centre, was our keynote speaker. The other two presenters were learners: Michael from Strandfontein High school and Lauren from Wynberg Girls’ High school. The speakers had a mission: they were there to raise our awareness of the violence against women and against our children, especially against the girl child. More importantly, these speakers were there to question whether we are enabling or disengaged change agents.   Have we taken up the baton from the 20,000 South African women who on 9 August, 1956 had made sacrifices against all odds? How are we using our human agency to fight the violence against women and children? Why is  ther...