Principal’s suspension by education department is deeply troubling
LIKE THOUSANDS of alumni of South Peninsula High School, who view their beloved alma mater with enduring affection, it is deeply troubling that its principal has been summarily suspended by an authoritarian and out-of-touch Western Cape Education Department.
Since its founding as a high school in 1950, South Peninsula – under the brilliant leadership of exceptional headmasters like AG de Villiers, K Hepburn, MN Moerat and now Brian Isaacs – has encouraged successive generations of aspirational pupils to dream the impossible and reach for the stars.
It was South Peninsula that first inculcated into me the then revolutionary idea that I could, with diligence and determination, escape the thirdclass fate that apartheid had in store for me as a young Muslim boy.
There is little doubt that it was South Peninsula’s renowned discipline and remarkable pedagogical milieu that underpinned its scholastic prestige and produced numerous high flyers who went on to excel in their chosen fields, both here and abroad.
Without its stringent brand of school governance and the inspirational lessons instilled into youngsters by dedicated teachers like the longserving Isaacs and staff, many prominent people would not be where they are today.
Indeed, they would not have attained their full potential without the strong work ethic and the strict discipline that South Peninsula thrives upon.
In contemporary South Africa a moral degeneracy and a feral lawlessness is infesting postapartheid society.
In most schools, a trendy politically correct mentality mollycoddles spoilt brats weaned on a severely imbalanced diet of individual rights and entitlements, but nothing about personal responsibilities and obligations.
Unsurprisingly, this destructive egotism fosters indiscipline and disorderliness in schools and right across the community.
Isaacs rightly resists such contemptuous hooliganism by insisting upon proven methods in maintaining school standards and charting pupils’ progress.
He is correct in disciplining unruly pupils and recalcitrant teenagers who poison a harmonious school environment.
It is truly astounding that a pusillanimous edu- cation department sucks up to these mischievous whippersnappers and their self-centred parents in disrupting the functioning of a successful school, instead of defending all those who want to reverse the tide of mediocrity, mayhem and criminality. No wonder South Africa is going to the dogs. Isaacs’s superlative teaching skills and outstanding administrative expertise deserves official recognition and a medal for educational excellence. Not some knee-jerk exclusion from South Peninsula High by cowardly, inept officials.
On behalf of all right-thinking people, this bold, tough-minded educationalist undertakes a difficult task in these times of unbridled teenage militancy, juvenile insolence and adolescent incivility.
Everyone who is concerned about plummeting behaviour at schools – and not only those connected with South Peninsula High – demand that the myopic education authorities immediately reinstate Isaacs so that he can continue with his lifelong passion in nurturing talented and productive citizens of the future.
Our country needs more, not fewer, devoted disciplinarians like Brian Isaacs.