EDITORIAL | If parents can’t set an example, how can we expect kids to be any better?

The racial tension at Hoërskool Jan Viljoen has been made worse by the disgraceful behaviour of parents

20 February 2022 - 19:34

Our schools should be models for promoting and supporting antiracism. This was the gist of a piece in the Sunday Times penned by Teresa Oakley-Smith (https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/opinion-and-analysis/opinion/2022-02-20-uproot-racism-in-schools-with-two-simple-steps/), who shared her thoughts on racial conflict boiling over at Hoërskool Jan Viljoen in Randfontein, west of Johannesburg. Unfortunately, upon reading Oakley-Smith’s piece, our tainted history seems to be repeating itself again and again. She writes about a “sickening sense of déjà vu” after being involved in attempts to resolve racial disharmony at Vryburg High School way back in 1996 — and again two years later, when nothing had changed...

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