VPHS
Editorial
What is success?
Our society does not have a great regard for teachers. Poorly paid in relation to the length and quality
of training required, we are often looked down on
by those in business and more prestigious professions. Our Provincial Government seems to think
that schools can function without teachers and the
South African Schools Act makes provision for
those with no knowledge of education on SGBs to
monitor how we do our job.
Yet in spite of this, many excellent young people are
joining the profession each year. How can this be?
Perhaps the fault lies in the naive belief that one’s
success can only be measured by direct comparison
with one’s bank balance. Now I am not at all advocating poverty as a desirable state, but the success of
one’s life is not a simple matter of money. Nor is it
measured by the opinion of others.
We all want to think that we are doing something
worthwhile, that we are making a difference and not
just pursuing a career, and if we can achieve this,
then we can consider ourselves successful. I know
that I will not be a great inspiration to all my students all the time, but with hard work, dedication
and a measure of luck, I have experienced great moments of joy with the children I teach. Moments like
these, few though they be, make the journey worthwhile. They are the moments we all live for as the
unique reward of our profession.
Park. We will not see dedication and loyalty like
this again, because the world has changed since Mrs
Marintha du Preez and Mrs Stephanie Russell started their journey in teaching. Spending many years
in the same place is now rarely possible or desirable, if not frowned upon as lack of ambition. Few
will doubt the impact that these ladies have had on
our school and its pupils over very many years.
We all want to look back at retirement and be content that our lives have been successful. The trouble
is that we will never know how successful they have
been, nor how many people we have touched over
the years. If the fond farewells of our current young
Victorians are an indication, then these two ladies
can consider themselves very successful indeed.
The attempted changes in education over the past
twenty years have left many of us wondering whether we still have a place at all. The word “teacher”
disappeared for a while, being replaced by “facilitator”, although what it was that such a person facilitated was never really clear. We now seem to
have come back to our starting point, and now we
are “educators”. I like that much more, because it
says, in fact, what we do. We educate young people for the best life they can have, both personally
and professionally, in the belief that the meaning in
our lives lies in pointing them to find the meaning
in theirs. What we will become in the technologically advanced classroom of the future is yet to be
revealed, but we must be ready for it if we are going
to remain relevant “educators” in the years to come.
The author Paulo Coelho has this answer to the
question: “What is success? It is being able to wake
up every morning with your soul at peace”. This is
my wish for our two retirees. In fact, it is my wish
for all of us.
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is
the key to success. If you love what you are doing,
you will be successful”
Albert Schweitzer
Dr Joan Clarke
Editor
At the end of this year, Victoria Park will lose two
remarkable teachers, who have given between
them, ninety four years to education. Nearly seventy
of those years have been spent here, at Victoria
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