Harold Cressy alumni honour heroes
FORMER Harold Cressy High School pupils of 1985/86 paid homage to inspiring and committed teachers at a reunion held at the District Six Homecoming Centre last week.
It was not a reunion for the former pupils to “celebrate material, academic or business successes” but for them to get together to honour the teachers who inspired their “political cultural and social consciousness”, said Enver Essop, a former pupil.
Due to political unrest, all the pupils opted to sacrifice the matric year of 1985 and repeat the schooling year on principle, in support of the anti-apartheid Struggle, said Essop.
As the teachers and former pupils reminisced, they called to mind “the shared values that led many to strive for success in the face of apartheid pressures and to support teachers who were arrested, dismissed or who went unpaid”, he said.
A poignant moment for Essop was to hear former principal Victor Ritchie, 93, remember that during the 1985 unrest, the Department of Education refused to pay the monthly salaries of seven teachers who they considered “too politically active and were inciting pupils to revolt”, he said.
As a mark of the solidarity which prevailed at the time, Ritchie and his staff had a meeting where they pooled their salaries and ensured everyone went home with a salary, Essop said. Considered by the pupils to be iconic teachers, Essop commented that they were “teachers we can only dream of retaining at schools today”.
“What stood out about the reunion was how the teachers were remembered by former pupils, with such pride, including by those who repeated a year or dropped out or who did badly at maths, science and Latin.
“What mattered were the former pupils’ memories of the integrity, commitment and knowledge of teachers. This was such an inspiration at a time when teachers and people involved with learning were seen as ‘stupid for working so hard for so little’,” said Essop.