PALI LEHOHLA | The poverty trap: how do we recover from this public diarrhoea?
South Africa could learn something from the village elders who raised us (or from Brazil and Mexico)
My primary schoolteacher was a disciplinarian of note, an athlete who led from the front with the athletics team and who never spared the rod both in class and on the sports field. He Mr Motete, who pupils referred to as Hlathe, certainly would not survive today’s environment where corporal punishment is not allowed. I am sure he would suffer withdrawal symptoms and he would have left teaching. So passionate was he about sport, the athletics team would arrive two hours before school started at 8am and go for a 10 or so kilometres jog. Whoever did not cope along the path was left to their own devices, but would ultimately arrive to join the academic programme. The results were clear. Our primary school won trophies, but he also unearthed sporting talent among us...
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