SCHOOLING PROBLEMS!

When it came time for our children to start school, our problems began, and they continued until we eventually moved from the Northern Cape to the Transvaal Province. Travsvaal had a far more international culture. When the girls started school, they attended the same girl's schools most other English speaking little girls did. The fact that it was an all girl's school was no problem; not the uniforms, nor the fact that it was a bus ride across town. Our real problems started when the school board hired a new principal. She started cramming children every where. Prefabricated class rooms filled every possible playground space, and there was talk of adding a second floor to the building. Even the entrance lobby was made into a classroom. I think the problem stemmed from the fact that the new principal was through and through Afrikaans and had a totally different idea as to the goals she wanted to accomplish, and what was important.

The newspaper ran a cartoon block block about then that illustrated it perfectly. It pictured a row of children walking into a machine on one side, all were different. They came out the other side, every one identical. We prided our children's individual personalities and talents. She seemed to want them to be robots, and to accomplish that every pressure was used to force conformation. They, and others, clashed with the Afrikaans language teacher who felt that all she needed to do was to read Afrikaans folk stories to children who knew no Afrikaans at all. She also often left them to read Afrikaans language books while she went on errands downtown. Another teacher, apparently felt one of the girls had many of her own personality problems and took exception. She was determined to change that, and sent undecipherable notes to us complaining about our daughter's penmanship. She also refused to accept the way she used the American style of writing 4's and 7's. If they were not changed to her choice, the math was marked wrong. The same child also learned in America to cross her T's. This was totally unacceptable and marked as misspelled. Why? Because the crossed T's reminded the teacher of a cemetery with crosses. She would not grade such a paper. The same child also loved to knit, and the class was told to do a knitted project for the inspector to see. Unfortunately, she did not hold the needles the way the teacher liked which created more problems.

Years later after we went on a furlough, the people who rented our home decided they would like to buy it. When we returned, we lived in a different house. We took that opportunity to change th girls to another school not far from the new home. It was a bi-sexual, bi-lingual school, but was predominantly Afrikaans speaking with one class for English speaking children. Everyone was happier. It had apparently just been the principal and two of her teachers. Eventually we would re-locate to live in Randburg, a suburb of Johannesburg. Things were much improved. A different daughter turned us grey there!

Now that I an look back on it, I praise the Lord that we have four healthy girls who preserved their differences and refused to be exactly like everyone else. One is now a nurse, for some time in charge of a Children's home, one is running her own business keeping the books for small businesses. The youngest and her husband operate their own business. Becky once astounded her instructor when she took an IBM computer course and got a 100% mark. They refused to admit that anyone could do that, but she did. She later came to America for a few years and worked, as a temporary help to teach people with graduate degrees how to use IBM equipment. The other one hated book-keeping in school, but has made a profession of accounting and works for a large hospital directing their accounts department. The Lord uses each of us as only He knows where we are needed most, and what we are equipped to do. We are not all alike. That I ended up creating a job as a printer and publisher is proof of that. Isn't God great! What job did He create you and prepare you for? Be sure that He did. Remember Philip the deacon and evangelist. God prepared him and used him to take the gospel to an African man opening a new continent. See Acts 8.