"Does it make a difference to clothe a child from the harsh misery of an informal settlement and bus him to a model C school, then send him back home?" Picture: Cindy Waxa/African News Agency (ANA) "Does it make a difference to clothe a child from the harsh misery of an informal settlement and bus him to a model C school, then send him back home?" Picture: Cindy Waxa/African News Agency (ANA)
The current trend in educational research investigates the correlation between environment and achievement, in tandem with nutrition (or lack thereof) and cognition. I salute the academics and institutions.
With earnest humility, I wish them strength and hope they can translate their stunning stats and intellectual clout into an improved life for even one child.
The jury is out on the tension between nature and nurture. Does it make a difference to clothe a child from the harsh misery of an informal settlement and bus him to a model C school, then send him home to his spartan bedroom until the next epistemic encounter?
We all know the mantra of the sadly sidelined fighters for equality of the early Struggle years who chanted that you can neither teach a hungry child nor have normal sports in an abnormal society.
Those truths have been cleverly cosmeticised into token integration at a controlled pace, and showcase equal opportunities that perpetuate the old dispensation of graded opportunity based on pigmentation.
My plea for equity does not usurp the efforts of the academics or (dubious) sports administrators.
My plea is to restore the self-image and dignity of the child. Re-arm those who have strayed with morals and ambition, encouragement and recognition.
The campus is the kitchen. The lectures are the family chats. The curriculum is the one life you have where little has changed for many because of inflexible and smug assumptions that some were born to relish while others were born to suffer.
Tokenism is insulting. Our sports teams play together then go back to suffer inherited environmental injustice. We have only a handful of athletes out of millions of citizens. Our top white athletes chase the dollars in franchises. Our top black athletes chase the diamonds and gold bars of exotic foreign competition.
In our free and emancipated country, we hand out free soccer balls as dubious acts of morality. The decrepit, soul-deadening schools are being replaced by new, colourful structures, but in the same muddy environment.
Commercial activity takes place in malls situated by the previous lawmakers. Buildings are going up as evidence of growth potential, but it happens in privileged places, far away from job-seekers.
The merry-go-round is moving, but no one is going anywhere. The rich get rich, while the poor kill children.
Faith-based interventions are minimal. They work only by attraction. They are vital but neglected because the authorities have disempowered adults. Doctors Without Borders work in other countries.
Our government clinics treat the sick like beggars. They play ducks and drakes with fancy smart cards for dependants who want something to eat, not the false sophistication of a new system that leaves the needy in cruelly long queues on miserably cold mornings.
* Literally Yours is a weekly column from Cape Argus reader Alex Tabisher. He can be contacted on email by actabisher@gmail.com
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media