/ 25 April 2005

Unacceptable to uneducate our learners

I read with disgust last month’s ‘A day in my life” (A nasty lesson in intimidation). In this column, teacher Sikheto Kubayi seems to think that a student — by disagreeing with him — made his life unbearable, when in fact Kubayi himself was at fault.

Firstly, Kubayi ignored a student who had his hand up — a proper procedure that is followed when one wants to comment — and then, instead of dealing with the learner like a teacher, he dismissed him.

Kubayi judged the ‘addict-cum-learner”, as he refers to him, even before he noticed that he smelt like ‘a man whose hobby was to suffocate and drown himself with dagga and alcohol”.

This teacher is a typical example of many horrible authoritative cowards who should not be allowed to uneducate our children. Yes, uneducate. Because what lesson did he teach his learners? Run away from problems, that’s what!

For his sake, I hope his mind is cleared and that he will never treat a learner like a dog again in his life.

Concerned parent,

Johannesburg