00 / i SAY:

Eskom affects us all. A Sunday outage left us 20 minutes before the end of a matinee in darkness. Fortunately, experience, even bad ones do prepare you for all eventualities and this has happened to us before. Out came our pre-prepared form requesting name, email and telephone number and the promise that those that would like to see the last 20 minutes would be welcome to come and see the whole show again free of charge. Nearly everyone has chosen to return – which is wonderful news from a performing aspect but not so wonderful from an economic aspect. We also had visitors who could not return – not good for tourism.

Our education system is in a mess and there are no quick fixes and no last minute repair jobs. If we want long term sound and beneficial education we must apply the correct training right from the beginning.

The entire family and teachers should all work together to make a viable and lasting solution. A possible way of starting is for each of us to define the roles we play in a child’s life. Parents who have children must take responsibility for their children when they do well and when they appear to have lost their way. Children need good food and sound emotional support in order to function at optimum level in the learning environment.

Parents and teachers should be using practical discipline and guidance to achieve the result we all want, balanced, well behaved and enthusiastic learners who will grow-up to achieve their dreams and in turn help others along the way.

The reality is many children do not have any parents or adults they can depend on to provide them with the basic necessities they need for healthy development. Teachers do become surrogate stand-ins whether they can handle the pressure or not. And so this cycle of confused roles we play in life becomes our reality.

Is it not time we developed and applied acceptable standards of parenting. I would even go so far as saying should there not be a licence one should acquire before having a baby and be able to prove that you can provide for that child for the next 12 years? You need a licence to become legally married and that can be ended in different ways but a child is dependent on you for a long, long time whether you are married or not.

Amy Gould