Thank you, matric teachers: iLIVE

15 October 2012 - 02:26 By Dylan Wray, executive director Shikaya -Teaching for Social Justice, by e-mail
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Teacher. File photo.
Teacher. File photo.
Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

To all the teachers of the Class of 2012, as your Grade 12s prepare to leave your classrooms, I want to take the time to recognise your efforts to help them walk out more proudly than they possibly did when they walked in five years ago.

Specifically, I want to recognise those teachers among you who have taken the time, in and out of the classroom, to do more than just produce fantastic Grade 12 certificates. You are teachers who have in various ways worked to help these young people to think more critically, act more compassionately and take steps more actively to make this country a better place.

You are teachers who have seen that you, possibly above all others, have the most influence on what this Class of 2012 believes, how they see themselves, how they treat each other and how they show up in the world beyond school.

You have seen that, at times, you have been called to be a teacher - to share knowledge of your subject in a way no one else can. At other times, you have been called to be an ear, a watchful eye, a firm hand, a comforting arm and a recognising eye.

At times you have found yourselves treading softly in the shoes of a parent, and have given some of these young matriculants the hope, attention and care they can't find anywhere else.

You have seen that education is not only about passing and failing. In fact, if anything, it is more about the failing than the passing because it is from our mistakes that we learn.

You have made the space in your classrooms and in your teaching to help this Class of 2012 reflect on their mistakes, learn from them and possibly be humbled by them.

You have said it is all right to have got it wrong, but what can we do differently this time to get it right? Essentially, you have made the space for them to understand what it is to be human and not just a pupil at a desk in a class.

You have helped them to fly. You have helped this Class of 2012, who by all accounts are entering a fragile world and a country still struggling to find its feet, to see that they have a role to play, an opportunity to be had, a voice to rise above the chatter and a heart to believe that anything is possible.

So, on behalf of all of those in the wings of the Class of 2012, I thank you.

Oh, and enjoy the extra free lessons you will have from next week.

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