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©  DESMOND DESAI, DMD EDU-HOME, 2009

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DESMOND DESAI'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY II

(CONTINUALLY REVISED AND ON-GOING)

“RACISM” or PREJUDICE?

                   “Could one argue that the fact that Pietie never received

                         recognition as an educational senior at our high school,

                         contributed to his premature death?”

                        ………..

                        “I argued that I could end up with seven distinctions, if I

                         was allowed to  do  music as a matric subject as our white counterparts

                         had the privilege of doing at the local high school.”

                        ……….

                        “I think that if I had been successful I  might have stuck to

                          my original decision to study medicine at UCT in 1970.”

                        ………

                        “Then he made the mistake of announcing in public that a

                         ‘coloured’ student did better that all of his white students

                         (of whom some become top students in the final

                         national examination!).

My year in Standard 9 (- in South Africa today we call it ‘Grade 11’ -) was successfully completed with almost 100% in my final Mathematics and Accounting exams, and distinctions in Physical Science and Afrikaans. Biology and English were my weakest subjects, but was probably also the best for the whole class.

Hence my mother was elated, and proven completely wrong: Although I obtained only an average percentage of 70 odd % in my second and ninth school year, my marks improved as I entered higher standards! She erroneously thought that the marks would ‘drop’ proportionally, which I suppose generally happens.

However, when I  entered Standard 10 in 1969, which was my final school year, we soon realized that our Accounting teacher, the ‘ruthless’ but respected (and beloved) Mr Pietie  Sheldon, was going to leave the school. I suspected that it went about promotion. According to his competitors, Mr Sheldon was ‘under qualified’ to be a senior teacher at a high school. Nonetheless, Pietie then successfully applied for a principal position in Kraaifontein. He had to travel from Malmesbury to his school on a daily basis, but a few years later he suffered a fatal accident. Could one argue that the fact that Pietie never received recognition as an educational senior at our high school, contributed to his premature death?

Anyway, as from June 1969, we were informed by the then principal, Mr Ebrahim (‘Braimpie’) Vesamian that a senior (White) Accounting teaching from Swartland High School – which only white children could attend in accordance with the brutal SA apartheid laws of the time – was going to teach us on certain afternoons, in one of our dilapidated classrooms at our ‘Coloured’ school in West Bank, Malmesbury.

I was completely disgusted with this arrangement, which stemmed from my resentment of the apartheid educational policies and my approach to our principal Vesamian requesting  (provocatively) permission to do music as a seventh subject with one of the white music teachers at Swartland High School. I argued that I could end up with seven distinctions, if I was allowed to do music as a matric subject as our white counterparts had the privilege of doing at the local high school.

Vesamian informed me that I could not enroll for music as a seventh subject at Swartland High School. This prompted my futile search in 1969 for a suitable music teacher in Paarl, Parow and Cape Town (Harold Cressy). I think that if I had been successful I might have stuck to my original decision to study medicine at UCT in 1970.

Anyway, I refused to attend the white teacher’s Accounting classes. According to this teacher’s own account, he decided to give the ‘Coloured’ Standard 10’s THE SAME EXAM PAPER he gave to his white matrics. Then he made the mistake of announcing in public that a ‘coloured’ student did better that all of his white students ( of whom some become the top students in the final national examination!). Unfortunately, that student was not there to be congratulated! You see, I wrote the exam, but never attended any classes. I worked on my own. In fact, I completed the entire matric Accounting syllabus on my own, and still managed to come out tops in my class, as well as the white class!

Both the white teacher and our ‘Coloured’ principal were furious with me. Vesamian threatened to expel me, since I was supposed to attend classes like all of the others did! Furthermore, the white teacher felt ‘insulted’ and refused to teach our ‘coloured’ students any further unless I attended classes with the others.

Vesamian pleaded with me, and I agreed to listen to the ‘white’ teacher teaching….. According to Vesamian, the ‘white’ teacher was the reason why I obtained a distinction in Accounting in the final exam, and did not ‘fail’ as many of my classmates did (who attended regularly).  Did Vesamian have more inside information about our cruel apartheid educational system of the time?

LIEDEMANN, CUDORE SNELL AND UCT

On Saturday 27 February 2010, while on my way to my building site in Betty's Bay, I stopped over at a quaint little 'Coloured' village called Temperance City (formerly referred to as 'Bredasdorp') just outside Gordon's Bay. I became interested in a number of useful items offered to sale to passing motorists, obviously 'illegally'. A mature (-or 'old', if you think of 60-year old person in that manner -) lady assisted me, and told me to come back later since her son, the seller,  was not home at the time.

                             Liedemann's old house                               Temperance City

                                    (Photo: 6 March 2010)                                                            (Photo: 6 March 2010)

A thought entered my mind about 'Mister' Liedemann, an old school master/principal and close friend of our Malmesbury Desai family who died of in 1983/84 already.  When I enquired about him, she instantaneously recalled that Liedemann was their school principal at the time (during the 1950's), and although he was 'extremely strict and a good disciplinarian', an outstanding educator who was undoubtedly widely respected by his learners, staff and the whole community.

Well, that is how my thoughts went back to years ago when I met Liedemann in 1969, during my matric year, and during which I also befriended Cudore Snell, then a Standard 9 learner at Harold Cressy in Cape Town. In fact, it was during that period that my life took a decidedly different turn! Incidentally. I actually knew of Cudore much earlier, but we only became friends upon Liedemann's 'insistence' or 'interference', if you like.  Recently  (in Dec 2009)  I wrote to Cudore who is somewhere in the USA about my new project related to our 'Cape Gypsies', but has sadly not responded....

LOGARITHMS : REAL UNDERSTANDING ?!

       “’n Logaritme van ‘n getal tot a sekere grondtal, is die eksponent waartoe the

            grondtal verhef moet word ten  einde gelyk aan die getal te wees.”

             (The logarithm of a number with respect to a certain base, is equal to the

            exponent or index to which the base has to be raised in order to be equal to the                                                                     number.)

             The ‘inspected’ rudely responded:

             “Nee, jy weet nie waarvan jy praat nie. Meneer, die  kinders weet niks nie!”

             (No, you do not know what you are talking about. Sir, the children know  nothing!”

During my UWC lecturing programme to first years in May 2010, I was reminded of an interesting day 43 years before (in 1967) when I was in standard 8 (Grade 10).

Our fairly experienced mathematics teacher, an extremely capable University of Cape Town B.Sc. graduate in mathematics, was ‘inspected’ by a (white) Afrikaans-speaking senior Education Department official.

On that day, the ‘inspector’ sat at the table in front of our nervous standard 8 mathematics class, while the teacher, an attractive and fair-skinned bachelor, who could have easily passed for ‘white’ ( when or if he preferred!) was expected to teach us logarithms.

The learners co-operated extremely well with this teacher as his lesson progress, and we all thought that the teacher was going to get an excellent ‘report’.

Then the burly ‘inspected’ rudely interrupted my teacher in a loud, gruff voice, and in Afrikaans:

          “ Meneer, wag net so ‘n bietjie…. Ek wil jou klas so ‘n bietjie toets!”

          (Sir, just hang on a minute. I want to test your class.)

He then asked us:

          “Wie van julle kan vir my sê wat ‘n logaritme is.”

          (Who of you can tell me what is a logarithm.”

I put up my hand, and ran through the definition, which the teacher taught us extremely well previously:

          “’n Logaritme van ‘n getal tot a sekere grondtal, is die eksponent waartoe        the grondtal verhef moet word ten einde gelyk aan die getal te wees.”

          (The logarithm of a number with respect to a certain base, is equal to the exponent or index to which the base has to be raised in order to be equal to the number.)

The ‘inspected’ rudely responded:

          “Nee, jy weet nie waarvan jy praat nie. Meneer, die kinders weet niks nie!”

          (No, you do not know what you are talking about. Sir, the children know       nothing!”

The ‘inspector’ tried to point out to us that a logarithm is nothing else but an exponent.  I started arguing with the ‘inspector’ telling him that I knew that, and that I could work out any problem on logarithms he could give us. He insisted that although I could give the definition, I only repeated it like a parrot. I disagreed with his ridiculous opinion publicly, to the utmost appreciation of all my class mates, and of cause to the delight of my surprised mathematics teacher (or was he disgusted at the situation and/or at both his arrogant learner and ‘inspector’?)