SA Today: Naming Education’s Elephant in the Room

The following commentary on the state of education in our country was written by Helen Zille. Forget politics for a few minutes and read it, for if you care for our future you will appreciate this concise analysis. As teachers, we can make the future brighter. Politicians masquerading as teachers don’t hall at all!

SA Today: Naming Education’s Elephant in the Room

While “Guptagate” dominated the news over the past two weeks, the release of one of the most important reports in two decades of democracy went almost unnoticed.

The report titled “The State of Literacy Teaching and Learning in the Foundation Phase” was released just over a week ago. It was researched and compiled by the National Education and Evaluation Unit (NEEDU), an independent institution that analyses the state of schools in South Africa and identifies the factors necessary for quality schooling.

The purpose of the study was to determine why, despite government’s massive investment in education over almost twenty years, so many children are failing to achieve basic literacy and numeracy skills in the Foundation Phase (grades 1 to 3).

The report draws its conclusions from an in-depth study of 133 schools in urban areas across the nine provinces.

The findings paint a grim picture. The majority of learners in poor schools start falling behind required literacy and numeracy levels in their first year, and by the time they end the “foundation phase” in grade 3, many have effectively dropped out and will predictably fail to master the curriculum in later years. This is the main reason why around 50% of children drop out of school before they reach matric. For example, last year’s matric class started grade 1 in 2001 as a group of 1,150,637 learners but only 551,837 wrote the 2012 national senior certificate examinations.

More importantly, the report focuses on WHY this is case. There is never a simple answer to a complex question. There are many variables at work, including children’s home circumstances.

But the report concludes that the primary reason for education failure in the foundation phase is this: A large proportion of South African teachers can’t teach, and many won’t make the effort required to do so.

They lack subject content knowledge (a test conducted by the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) found that more than half of grade 6 teachers failed a grade 6 language and mathematics test); they lack an understanding of the broader curriculum or the progression required to meet its requirements; and they lack pedagogical teaching skills.

Time lost through late-coming and absenteeism of both teachers and learners is another serious problem identified in the report.

Most educational experts have known this for a long time, but the government has been in denial because most of South Africa’s under-performing teachers belong to the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), one of the largest COSATU affiliates and a pillar of support to President Jacob Zuma in his battle against Zwelinzima Vavi.

Confronting South Africa’s education crisis requires the political will to face down SADTU. The NEEDU report is path-breaking because it confronts this issue head-on. It names the elephant in the room.

It highlights how SADTU has paralysed education in some provinces, particularly in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo and is responsible for the poor discipline and the widespread collusion and nepotism in the recruitment and promotion of staff in the schools it “controls”.

The report makes a number of recommendations to tackle this problem, most importantly, the introduction of an assessment of expertise as a precondition for entry into jobs in education and strict merit-based criteria for appointments, especially senior management in schools. The report recognises that these changes will be met with resistance and states that “success depends on strong political will exercised over a sufficient period of time to entrench this new way of doing things.”

The question that arises is whether the government will now have the courage to act on the report’s recommendations, and implement measures, like merit based appointments and competency testing, which SADTU opposes.

The much (and often unfairly) maligned Angie Motshekga and her Director General Bobby Soobrayan, may well be the first leadership team at a national level that is prepared to do so. This is the real reason why SADTU is demanding their resignation.

According to the draft NEEDU Bill currently before Parliament, Minister Motshekga is obliged to table the report at the next meeting of the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) — comprising the National Minister and the nine provincial MECs — for consideration and action.

We will watch the outcome with great interest. Will the CEM have the guts to accept the diagnosis and back Minister Motshekga in taking the necessary action?

Or will they take refuge behind the misdiagnoses of the past which resulted in billions of Rands poured into misdirected interventions that often only succeeded in making education worse?

It is worthwhile briefly surveying this history to avoid repeating its mistakes.

In the early years of our democracy, the focus was (correctly) on redistributing resources to poorer schools. This happened on a huge scale. According to Professor Servaas van der Berg, by 2006, 49% of education spending on salaries reached the poorest 40% of households and non-personnel public spending on the poorest fifth of schools was roughly six times higher than spending on the richest fifth of schools. Yet, this massive shift in public spending did not result in improved outcomes.

The most bizarre attempt to “redistribute resources” was the voluntary severance package and teacher redeployment scheme, which was aimed at appeasing the teacher unions, rather than improving education. And it stripped the public school system of much of its leadership, skills and experience. For example, in KwaZulu Natal, 514 principals, 223 deputy principals, 925 heads of departments and 1465 senior teachers took voluntary severance packages during 1996/97.

The consequences for education were predictably disastrous.

The national government then turned its attention to the curriculum, with the now acknowledged failure of “Curriculum 2005”. Based on a new international fad and using American consultants, the ANC concluded that traditional “content- based” methods of teaching were the core problem. So the national department introduced outcomes based education (OBE), which placed an emphasis on the broad competencies learners should acquire at the end of the school year, without any content-based guidance for teachers on how to achieve these results. The curriculum expected teachers to have the ability to select their own teaching materials without providing any detail on the content they should teach. It also downplayed (and sometimes even dismissed) the importance of textbooks, encouraging teachers to use any materials available to them. It was a disaster. The esoteric training, based in incomprehensible education theory, and the ill-defined “curriculum outcomes” merely confused most teachers, who simply did not know what to do. And they concluded that they should not place primary emphasis on the most important function of schools: teaching children to read, write and calculate.

A full 15 years have been wasted as we attempted to correct the folly of Curriculum 2005.

Then the focus turned to teacher qualifications. The problem, said the national government, was “unqualified teachers”, which had some resonance given the fact that only half of South African teachers were actually qualified to teach. The attempt to correct this situation led to a range of part-time courses, which consumed teachers’ time in studying a range of subjects that added little to their core subject content knowledge, and gave them no practical teaching skills. Ironically, these courses are credited for the dramatic increase in education qualifications over the last two decades – today 94.4% of teachers have formal qualifications. But the actual result is a preponderance of “Life Orientation” qualifications – while maths and language education continue to deteriorate.

Then the new fad became the “Language of Learning and Teaching” without understanding the enormous complexity of “languages in transition” (where the formal language of education differs markedly from the spoken language in urban areas). There was also no recognition of the fact that the vocabulary to teach maths and science in various indigenous languages still needs to be developed. The result has been a further deterioration in learning outcomes, particularly for the poorest learners taught in their “mother tongue” which often differs profoundly from the dialect spoken in the community. These learners were even more disadvantaged when the switch to English came in Grade 4.

The NEEDU report, however, highlights two interventions that may be the key to improving education outcomes in the Foundation Phase and, which are already being implemented. These are the “LitNum” Intervention of the Western Cape Education Department and Gauteng’s Primary Language and Mathematics Strategy (GPLMS).

The report discusses both in detail and highlights the lessons learnt from their implementation. It also calls for both to be subjected to rigorous evaluations by independent experts so that the successes and benefits of both could be incorporated into a broad systemic programme in the future.

The NEEDU report also reveals that the Western Cape Education Department’s interventions are starting to pay off. The study showed that there were only two districts in which the average quantity of writing work approached the prescribed norms. Both are in the Western Cape, which is far ahead in literacy in the foundation phase.

Much more must still be done. But at last the NEEDU report diagnoses the core problem correctly. And if the national government can summon up the courage to confront SADTU, we will be able to build sustainable education improvements into our education implementation plans. And if we do everything right, it will still take 15 years to transform most public schools into institutions delivering quality education.

From an article written by Helen Zille

Reading poetry in a precious week….three Scottish poets

There is something incredibly uplifting about a poem. As a science graduate myself, I can’t profess to know much about poetry. In fact, I can’t profess to know much about anything in the arts. But, the mystery of poems, and music, and art, is that it can reach out and draw you towards it, even if you haven’t the slightest idea why.

I bought a few new books of the good stuff for the weekend. As we start a school year, these early weeks after a good start are a precious time. It is still possible to enter the world of the poem, the hurly burly of a school year hasn’t upset the natural rhythm of things. (To aid the process, it was a wet weekend here).

Don Paterson from Scotland got my juices flowing with his maiden volume ‘Nil Nil’. Full of fun and challenge and a few images that crash like a wave over one’s consciousness. If ‘Seed’ won’t help a teenage man to keep his wits about about him …then nothing will. Powerful images, especially for a father with two sons in their early twenties and a daughter in Matric this year.

From the opening line: “Parenthood is no more than murder by degrees……” to the closing line: “My child is hunting me down like a thief”, the poem bristles with images of sexuality and biology that have an oppressive inevitability about them.

A speed trial of gang rapists in India started today: it is making news headlines across the world. Here at home in South Africa, approximately 1300 women will be raped in the next 24 hours: that won’t make headlines. Those images in Paterson’s poem are too strong to include in a blog read by staff, parents and boys of the school I lead…. But they make one think. How many unwanted children will be conceived tonight? How many children will lose their innocence this week?

But, I didn’t intend to get heavy. That heaviness is just what lies in my own mind. The poet drew it out, he did his work. I did mine too.

Another Scottish poet, James McLaughlin, has an altogether smoother and graceful set of images. I immediately related to what he is expressing in his Sonnet 4. Imagine it as you will, but I think of a computer screen and me ‘Googling’ some of the places in which I have lived. Like a ghost above my home, an intruder on my lane, a stranger on my own street, it is a time warp. Floating above the earth, spirits soaring, bodies swooping, reaching to heaven. Those people of your youth doing likewise around you, even if it only at the click of a mouse on a keypad.

Sonnet 4 by James McLaughlin

| a stain of avocado and
gold criss-cross the land |
they find these fields
Google Earthed in glossy
magazines | as we reach
another brow we gain breath
take in another
reminiscence another
longing | with a turn you
disappear into the distance|
you seem to glide over
boulders and trees| now all
this is manifestation | were
you just a spectre of
mystification?| or just a
phantom to me? |

Kenneth Steven is a simpler read, childish even. But, that often happens when a poet praises nature and the world around him. There was one poem in the volume ‘Imagining Things’ that spoke to a friend who is going through a sticky patch at present. A good man, a man who could do with a bit of peace.

The poem is titled ‘Sometimes’:

In
all
the
rush
and
hurry
of
our
lives
we
need
so
much
just
now
and
then
to
find
an
island

Poetry, it reaches those places where longer sentences can’t go. I wish I understood it better. I wish I could have it linger longer. There will be weeks this when these poems will be unreachable ….better enjoy them while I can!

And find peace, my friend.

The courage to care for countries we may never visit or know

One of my all time favorite musicians is the Irish legend, Christy Moore. He was an activist in his youth and is an activist still. His music doesn’t allow a listener to be neutral.

A couple of weeks ago, Christy was invited as special guest to The City Hall, Dublin where The South African Ambassador was launching an event to remember Ireland’s Anti-Apartheid Movement. Throughout the 70s and 80s, the late Prof Kader Asmal was a hugely respected member of faculty at Trinity College in Dublin and anyone who attended university in Ireland was influenced by the Irish AAM. The only country in the EU not to have diplomatic relations with South Africa, Ireland was (and remains) a country that is closely linked to South Africa.

Unlike many countries where it was middle class kids who took up the activist causes, in Ireland working class folk have always had an interest in the world around them. One of the most notable instances of working class activism was the strike launched by a group of ten check-out operators at one of Ireland’s biggest supermarket chains, Dunnes Stores, back in 1984. These humble but courageous people brought a supermarket chain to its senses and within months every other national chain had done likewise.

At the big event in the Dublin City Hall, Ambassador Ndou invited Christy to sing “The Dunnes Stores Song” (by Sandra Kerr) and The Biko Drum” (by Wally Page). Sadly, in a City Hall filled with government ministers, trade union officials, journalists, photographers and a good smattering of old activists, there was not one woman from the Dunnes Stores Strike of 1984. (Maybe this is another example of the courage of good honest people being hijacked by the well-connected.) Anyway, Christy dedicated the following song to The Dunnes Stores Strikers.

The Dunnes Stores Strike (Sandra Kerr)

Close your eyes and come with me back to 1984

We’ll take a walk down Henry St to Dunnes Department store

The supermarket’s busy, the registers make a din

The groceries go rollin’ out and the cash comes rollin’ in

Mary Manning is at the checkout trying to keep warm,

A customer comes up to her a basket on her arm

The contents of that basket Mary’s future was to shape

The label clearly stated, produce of The Cape

I can’t check out your oranges Mam, you’ll have to put them back

They come from South Africa where The White oppress The Black

I’d have it on my conscience I couldn’t sleep at night

If I helped support a system that denies Black People’s Rights

CHORUS

The managers descended in an avalanche of suits

Mary was suspended cos she wouldn’t touch the fruits

No one was goin’ to tell Ben Dunne what he bought or sold

These women are only workers they must do as they are told

Isn’t that just typical of the way Apartheid works

It’s not just in South Africa that the Boss man calls the shots

Dunne’s wouldn’t have a boycott, couldn’t give a tinkers curse

Don’t matter how they filled the shelves so long as they lined his purse

Goodwill and solidarity came from all around the world

Such concern and sacrifice, such courage brave and bold

When 14 months were over 10 women and a man

Had helped to raise black consciousness all around the land

Clerys in O’Connell St stopped sellin’ South African shoes

Best Man sent all their clothes back, Roches stores their booze

Til all South African Goods were taken off the shelves in Dunnes

Mary Manning was down in Henry St and she was sticking to her guns

When we lose hope or think we are helpless, when we express distress about the hundreds of women killed in the building collapse in Bangladesh, but still buy our clothes at a ridiculously low price, we aren’t really finding our courage like those simple folk at Dunnes Stores nearly three decade ago.

Those women have probably never even been to South Africa. We can care for countries we may never visit either.

Three questions……

I have always been fascinated by politics and leadership and have been devouring analysis of Margaret Thatcher after her death yesterday. the following little excerpt comes from an article by Rodger Duncan in Forbes Magazine this morning. I think that you might enjoy it.

“In pre-Revolutionary Russia a priest was confronted by a soldier as he walked down a road. Aiming his rifle at the priest, the soldier demanded:

“Who are you?
Where are you going?
Why are you going there?”

Unfazed by the sudden interrogation, the priest replied with a question of his own: “How much do they pay you?” Somewhat surprised, the soldier answered, “Twenty-five kopecks a month.”

After a thoughtful pause, the priest said, “I have a proposal for you. I’ll pay you 50 kopecks a month if you’ll stop me here every day and challenge me to respond to those same three questions.”

None of us has a soldier confronting us each day with life’s tough questions. But we can honestly ask the questions of ourselves. If we choose to, we can issue our own self-challenges to push ourselves not only to do better, but to be better.”

A letter from a mother to her son who is about to complete his Form 3 Journey

Last week I published an adaptation of the St Cyprian’s Day Speech which had been written by a father whose son who is out on our Form 3 Journey.

Well, this annual 23-day/500km journey of self-discovery is rapidly reaching a conclusion with three of the six groups already safely back at base. It hasn’t been without it’s challenges, near-misses, cuts, bruises, blisters and ‘blow-outs’ (as in bicycle tyres, inflatable water tubes and short temper). Once again, we have been blessed and protected each step of the way. If it wasn’t risky, it wouldn’t be worth doing at all.

I received the following letter from a mother whose son will return home in two days’ time and I think I need to share it (names removed):

“Dear T,

I write to you today as a mom of a young man just about to complete his journey – K, Group 6. I can honestly say that it has been a Journey for me too and a learning curve as a mother too. The letters we have been receiving and especially the ones I have received personally as mom are so moving, heartfelt and just an absolute reflection of the St Albans motto "It takes a school with a vision to prepare a young man for life".

My husband and I truly believe that we have chosen the absolute right school for our son when we made the decision (not an easy one, so far from home) 2 years ago to attend St Alban’s. And soon we start a new "journey" next year for our younger son who will be joining the St Alban’s family next year. Below is a letter I have just sent to K. The poem is so appropriate and apt for him as he comes back a young man with many journeys still ahead and for all the other courageous young men of "Journey 2013"

Thank you for your decision two years ago of giving our son the opportunity to experience life, family and journeys in the St Alban’s family.

With thankfulness and best wishes”

The Letter from Mother to Son:

“To my special young man- gosh I am missing you.

I remember when I was 16 I went on a hike with about 15 students from my high school into the Drakensberg and very early one morning we hiked before sunrise to the top of a cliff to sit and look out and watch the sun rise. Our teacher at that time read a Native American poem and I still remember that time so clearly. It so peaceful and so unbelievable. Here is a Native American poem for you.

I love you mom xxxx”

The Poem to be read at Dawn!

SPIRITUAL WARRIOR

Life offers us the opportunity to become a Spiritual Warrior.
A warrior is one who bravely goes into those dark areas within
themselves to ferret out the Truth of their being.
It takes great courage, stamina and endurance to
become a Spiritual Warrior.

The path is narrow, the terrain rough and rocky.
You will walk alone: through the dark caves,
up those steep climbs and through the dense thick forest.
You will meet your dark side. The faces of fear, deceit, and
sadness all await your arrival

No one can take this journey but you.
There comes a time, in each of our lives,
when we are given the choice to follow this path.
Should we decide to embark on this journey,
we can never turn back…. Our lives are changed forever
On this journey, there are many different places we can
choose to slip into and hide. But the path goes on.
The Spiritual Warrior stays the course, wounded at times,
exhausted and out of energy. Many times, the Warrior will
struggle back to their feet to take only a few steps before
falling again.

Rested, they forge on,
continuing the treacherous path.
The journey continues. The Spiritual Warrior
stays the course. Weakened, but never broken.
One day, the battle, loneliness and desperate fights are over.
The sun breaks through the clouds; the birds begin to sing
their sweet melodies. There is a change in the energy.
A deep change within the self.

The warrior has fought the courageous fight.
The battle of the dark night of the soul is won.
New energy now fills the Warrior.
A new path is now laid before them.
A gentler path filled with the inner-knowing
of one who has personal empowerment.

With their personal battle won, they are filled with joy.
A new awareness that they are one with the Spirit beams
as they go forth to show others the way.
They are not permitted to walk the path for others.
They can only love, guide and be a living example
of the Truth of their being.

How about that? Now that is a poem to which any man would be proud to come home! There are things that happen on this Form 3 Journey of ours that we hardly understand. There are equally mysterious things that happen at home in the hearts of mothers, fathers, brother, sisters, grandparents and friends.

Let’s hope the mystery doesn’t lose its magic for many months and years to come!

St Crispin’s Day Speech….. Adapted by a Journey Father for his Son

I have just spent the past four days out on the road with our Form 3 (Year 10) Boys who are midway through their 23-day Journey. Twenty three days of challenges over a total distance of nearly 500 km. In fact, it usually ends up being much longer than that for 15/16 year olds are not great at reading maps in inhospitable territory.

This Journey is not really a physical challenge, although most days involve a physical dimension that takes the boys way beyond their comfort zones. The Journey is really an emotional journey, an inner journey. At all levels, it brings boys to a recognition that their limits are mostly conceived mentally and are not, in fact, finite. They come back realizing that their resilience and strength is far greater than they previously believed.

One of the key aspects of the Journey is that boys can communicate with their families and friends by hand-written letter. One father, Dr Ternence Milne, adapted the St Crispin’s Speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V and has sent it in a letter to his son. He was good enough to share it with me and I think it is too good not to share further.

St. Crispin’s Day Speech
Adapted for Journey Group 6
St Albans2013

Sierra India X-ray
S I X
Heroes all 23 Day (s)

Enter Group 6. What’s he that wishes so?
My Headmaster, Mr. Hamilton? No, my fair Head;
If we are mark’d to walk, we are now
To do our College loss; and if to walk,
The fewer boys, the last Group of 2013, the greater share of
honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one boy more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for food,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my food drop;
It yearns me not if boys my Gore-Tex garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my cause, wish not a boy from St Albans.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one boy more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Mr Hamilton, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this Journey,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his back pack;
We would not give up in that boy’s company
That fears his fellowship to walk with us.
These 23 day(s) is (are) call’d the feast of St Albans Journey.
He that outwalks these days, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this Journey 2013 is name’d,
And rouse him at the name of St Alban.
He that shall Journey these days, and see Matric,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his Journey,
And say ‘This was our Journey (2013).’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Journey.’
Old Boys forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did on Journey. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
James, Alistair, Bradley, Callum, Calvin, Damian, Deriaan,
Dylan, Kyle, Marco G, Marco vG, Matthew, Michael, Mimo,
Mosa, Oliver, Oscar, Robert, Shoni, Stefan
Be in their flowing water bottles freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good boy teach his Dad;
And Journey shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he these 23day’s that shed their sweat with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And boys in South Africa now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their boyhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That walked with us on Journey.

Maj Dr T Milne, Care of Shakespeare and E Company,
506 Infantry, US Army
For the 54th Journey Group

Men of St Alban’s – How do you want to be remembered?

One of the special aspects of our school is that we get together as a community almost every day. Sometimes we gather in the homemade Amphitheatre that was first constructed as Cawdor Castle, the central prop in our 1969 production of Macbeth. It was built through the sweat and effort of the boys in our school at the time, mainly through Friday afternoon drill sessions. The intention was to demolish it after the play was over, but then someone had the bright idea of using it for School Assemblies. Temporarily, until we built a school hall.

On the other days, we gather in our Chapel, a milking shed that was temporarily commandeered for the purpose of worship back in 1964. The plans and drawings for a grand gothic-inspired cathedral are still displayed here, but it is only now in our 50th Anniversary Year that we are seriously planning on building a New Chapel. We still haven’t built a school hall.

This morning, the Morning Service was taken by the senior boys from Ochse House. The main message was delivered by the Head of House, Ben. It was powerful and he has given me permission to share excerpts of it on my blog.

Ben’s Message

“Good morning School.

I don’t have a deep sound-track or an epic walk-in because what I am going to speak to you about this morning is slightly different to what themes in the Chapel have been over the last few weeks.

You see, I don’t play SA Schools rugby…I’m not a top swimmer…. I tried waterpolo once and spent the best part of 3 months either drowning or faking a cramp to try and avoid being screamed at in Hungarian (our coach is Hungarian)…. And it would probably take me half an hour to get half up The Crags (our climbing wall). So I’m going to leave motivating and inspiring you to the professionals. Instead I’m going to challenge the way we as Albanians live our lives day to day hour to hour and minute to minute.

And I’m going to start with a story:

One day, a poor boy Howard who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin penny left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?” “You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.” He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”

He had been ready to give up and quit. But as Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and humanity was strong too.

Years later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled it seemed as if she was incurable. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once and his eyes filled with a strange light. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She began to read the following words:

“Paid in full with one glass of milk”

Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly

For you see one tiny act of kindness one tiny act of selflessness can make all the difference in someone’s life. I went through a pretty rough patch in junior school my parents got divorced, my granny died and my aunt was raped and murdered all within a month. Lots of people kinda walked past me and tapped me on the back and said “Sorry”, but none of it really helped. And then one day my English teacher came to me at break and offered to take me to McDonald’s.

He bought me chow and spoke to me about everything that had happened. Suddenly with a Big Mac in my stomach and having finally spoken to someone everything seemed like it was no longer all that bad. The tiny thing he did that day was incredibly significant in my life and I will never forget it.

I think we at St. Albans are incredibly successful. There are few schools in South Africa or even the world that can come close to achieving as much as we do. But what worries more is are we truly significant ?

How many of you sitting can say that you have colours or will probably receive colours of some kind in your career here at St Albans? How many of you have played a first team or A team sport? How many of you are chairman’s of clubs? How many of you are top academics? I’m sure almost all of you fall into one of those. But how many of you can truly say that you have made a difference in someone’s life. That you have changed their lives for the better and left a lasting impression.

The harsh reality is that in 50 years’ time when you all come back for your reunion it’s not going to matter whether you had full colours or the biggest biceps on campus because no one will remember. Your blazer will be an antique in the back of your cupboard and your arms will have shrivelled and shrunk. But what will be remembered without any doubt is the type of person you were.

Think about it how do you want to be remembered? As a first team soccer player or as the head of the choir or maybe just possibly a man who stood for what is right had unwavering values who was able to change people’s lives and his small way make the world a better place.

You see the object of life is not to live forever but rather to create something that will. To leave a legacy behind. Your money, power and possessions die with you but the way people remember you lives on eternally. Mother Teresa, the Mahatma Gandhi, Florence Nightingale and Nelson Mandela where not particularly talented nor exceptional people but they lived their lives completely selflessly and were determined to make as big of impact in the people around them lives as possible. And as a result are some of the most iconic figures in history.

We St Alban’s constantly sell ourselves as being school of three spheres: culture, academics and sport. We are expected to participate actively in all 3, but there is the fourth sphere of spirituality that we often seem to neglect that is just as important in fact no it’s far more important. To have a relationship with God and live the way God intended us to live not for ourselves but rather for what really matters in life. There truly is nothing more rewarding then seeing that your small act of kindness make a massive difference in someone else’s life.

I challenge you today to be that Albanian who does all that is expected of him, strives for excellence whilst fighting the good fight and doing his level best to be the change he wants to see in the world. Be grateful for all that you have. Relish all the amazing opportunities we’ve been given. Stop knocking other people down to build ourselves up. Have the courage to do what is right. Live for others rather than for ourselves. And decide what type of legacy we want to leave behind.

Men of St Albans – How do want to be remembered?”

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