A roadmap to better marks

If only he'd had the foresight to consult a roadmap before the exam, his son's results might not have been quite so tragic, says Pieter Redelinghuys.

- Pieter Redelinghuys

Let me start by admitting that I'm in no position to preach when it comes to school performance.

My late mother – and may she finally be at peace in that Great Classroom beyond the Styx – always said the reason she never fulfilled her potential as a star tennis player was because her knees gave in. Not from a torn ligament or busted cartilage, mind you - but from having to kneel so often, praying her youngest would just scrape through another school year.

Back then, I still had a few more “standards” to get through - which today have been replaced with grades. I've got strong feelings about today's “standards” too, but let me rather bite my tongue. As I've said: I'm not the one to be throwing stones.

There's an old joke that goes something like this: a young man visits his girlfriend on the farm, and her father asks, "So, did you do matric?” To which the boy replies, “No, Oom - I just did Du Toitskloof on my way through.”

Yes, yes, it’s weak. But it was often totally applicable in our house as we waited anxiously for the end-of-term report card. Many a collective sigh of relief was breathed when we saw those clusters of Es and Ds. And more than once, my father would comment dryly: “Hamerkop [that’s the headmaster] called. He says please come fetch the skin you left behind when you scraped through.”

Not that I was untalented. Lazy? Most definitely. Though I prefer the term “selective assimilation of facts”.

Until fairly recently, it seemed the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.