Columnist never lets one down
I WOULD like to compliment your columnist, Brian Isaacs, on his excellent article published in the Cape Argus on Thursday, November 18, entitled “Encourage children to read but don’t force them.” It made me think of my own journey from casual reader to passionate reader, and how my interest in reading was transformed by my teachers at high school.
They did not force us as pupils to read, they set an example by themselves being avid readers. They came across as articulate, insightful thought-leaders, and we knew that reading was an instrumental factor in this.
Isaacs reminisces on the texts to which, as a young pupil, he was exposed, under the influence and inspiration of the late-great Richard Rive.
I am reminded that, until myself being exposed to Rive, I did not know of the existence of a South African literary tradition which included Rive himself, Peter Abrahams, Dennis Brutus, Izekiel Mpahlele, and others. I also had the great fortune of access to the South Peninsula Educational Library, which housed a unique collection of titles from Heinemann’s “African Writers’ Series” – a literary feast indeed!
I always look forward to your Thursday edition to read Isaacs’s weekly articles. His thoughts and concerns about our education system, and particularly about the vulnerability of our young people (especially the children of the poor) within that system always provokes one’s own concerns. Isaacs himself, a former teacher but educationistfor-life, shows wisdom, insight and caring, and is a wonderful example of the kind of person we sorely need in education if we are going to transform the system. Viva, Brian Isaacs.
CHARLES THOMAS | Claremont