From: mokaba@binah.cc.brandeis.edu
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Black Gavan Chapter four -what if he dropped out of high school
Date: 23 Jul 92 17:04:55 GMT
Reply-To: mokaba@binah.cc.brandeis.edu
Organization: Brandeis University

Dear fellow readers, 
Allow me to take a detour from the map that I indicated previously.
I had promised you to cover issue that affect Black Gavan tredoux
beyond college, but i feel an urge to cover a different aspect of the
life of african men and women in the same age cohort as our own real
life "vocal"  Gavan Tredoux, . This time let us look at the 90 pecent
that we know drop out of school long before they even reach high 
school and the one that never proceed to university,.. contrary to
Gavan allegation that this anecdote of lifes of african in SA is not
a story about my life. But is an outcome of careful analysis of the
situation, interview with students, adults and of couse being an 
African in that country meant some of my expereinces are similar to those
I am writing about here.  Allow me to take you once again on an imaginary
journey across time into the years 1970 to 1980 and present you with
the experiences of people that today are at the peak of their lives, 
they are the million of south africans that have been labeled the 
marginalized youth, those that have been the uneducated and the uneducable, 
the group of youths sedn some chill down the spines of many a white 
person in our country..., yes the one that turned South Africa upside down
made it ungovernable and .. belive me, the ones that you and me will have
to rebuild south Africa with.. I want you to get down from the ivory towers
of the cape... leave the behind (or bring with you if like) all the tbinking
cap or skills that , like "Dr" Gavan you have mastered through the years
of aparheid education.. Please get down from the pinnacle of though and 
pedandic pursiuts of decimal point in you so called empirical research..
and think through and beyond the problem at our hand.. (Please
Gavan  tredoux make you rather impressive knowldge of philosophy be 
applied to the plight of human suffering in its intirety and not to for the 
direct benefit of one to the detriment of anoth as Verwoerd did. Allow 
you rather empiristic arguments about proof be directed on this problem 
that I will present to you... (Please focus on SA oh beloved SA and how to
take it our of the social rut that we ... I mean we african have by not
acting fast to rebell for change; and the white that wished the interdependence
with the African away... and sticked it in the mud.) let us join Nkosi
sikelela to the Stem and create a chorus of continuity if only it will lift
us out of this rut.

I make a special apeal once more to dear old "Dr" Gavan Tredoux to hold his
rather cantecarous(cant find a better word nor is it spelled correctly) person
that he has taken in this net... and to think of solultions.

Here goes:
Gavan, having failed standard eight in 1976 decided that there was no way
that hje was goin to get to school. beside a new policy wa taken by the DET
to eclude students that are older that their peer.. he roamed the street.
He could find no emploment in (say Kingwiliamstown if you like) beucase of the
high unemployed among africans in the rigion ... there was a space for 
people like him in the are... a vocation school but he was african ..  te
school took only whites.. He knew that given a chance could do it... but
no way... one other thing that complicated his life was the fact that he
had been very outspoken against the government during the school boycots and 
had acquired a record ...  which make him an outcust... this not only
affected him but affect all those that though that there was hopew in
challanging bthe government on the issue of unequal education. He was stuck..
his friend call him what you like ... and other peers went though the rigour
of high school knowing very well that the government policy toward educating
them was reluctant at best or controlluing at worst. ... the idea of
being competitive in the l;abor market the hope of being in direct competition
with white student who have had the better part of the government education pei
scarted them ... those seperate these guy knew the exted of the war...against
injstice..

the social braekdown in the fibre of the african the develop[ed rapidly after
the soweto uprising.., seem somwhat necessary to overcome the parent that
had thus far developed adaptive mechanism to their posditiopn in the 
countru... the youth Gavan and his friend had developed mutual educatyion
teams talking about anything from how train run .. to how the government 
operate.. how to evade policy tea gas ... and how to finish high school
though.. JMB .. they talked of the need to fight for freedom and the 
role of the missionaries and the church in keeping them in their place.
The you of the 70's .. taked of the death of Steven Bantu Biko who we 
"all know slipped and fell" oops! alegations .... where is the  proof.
They taked of being arresred in town for windoshoping without a pass and
dealing with chemistry taecher,.... of soldier in the school who as you
may know were themselves scared of the situation or were out there to get 
the enemy... yes seven years old enemies...
While white Gavan could careless about the consequence of bantui education
and would rather think of the solution to Dramaguptra's quadratic problem
or the the sequence of decay taken by radio active material ... by the

creation of partheid young Black Gavan Tredoux could dream not of ever
being a nuclear physicist but dream of running fast enough from the tear
gar, the police and day dream about a good education.. The avrage 
gavan in white communty was sure of a better job after high school 
managerial in ernest.. you know "baas vir 'n klomp kaffirs"... Oh no
that is not what we South African through allowing the Nationalist
party and our fears to rule our land we said that balck Gavan trdoux
should be content with aspiring to be a garden boy.. to be a clerk,
tea boy and when old enough be promoted to bevarage menager... supervising
two new people before retiring into the dark homeland of Lebowa Qwa(squared)
and many such dangeons of social ill. 

Finding a job ultimately in Batswagare bus severive a homeland direected 
bus service ran byu the Bantu Development trust or Bantu Investment Coportaion
a gornement business entre prose that later destroyed almost all private
componies amongt them the Hambabutya in Pietersburg and the bus compony
in Nelspruit.. THough Gavn was good in Math he was assigned to the workshop
where mobility was less than zero (i.e. negative high tunrover). 
Can we afford as south african if we purport to love free enteprise to
allow government enterprise to suffocate local and individual innitiative
can we in this era srtill afford to allow our taxes to overide long
established organizations... yes we did ... and the corporation was part of
it ..  (this is of couse another issue) 

back to Gavan, his new boss was a white lass about his age who was 
eiuther uninterested in pursuing his studies or was incapable of doing so
dispite the ten time resources that were put into educating him instead of 
Gav... by virtue of being white he was a manager.. and ipso facto hes was
earning more than his black counterpart. Irrespective of his productivity
we allowed our taxes to be used to sponsor over supervision by sometime 
incapable white.. (can you believe that at least 60% of whites worker
have some managerial duties..) well, I will not addrees the statistics
for balck because as of the 70 and 80, balck maangers were a miniscule
proportion.. 

Now we know how we south african created the mass of balck youth that
today are heliping in their own way change SA for the good or worse.
Please do not look away this time because when you look again next time
the effect are going to smack you in the face. Can the experience of 
such alarge mass of people be legal .. yest it was..

Now that we so wish to change .. what are we doing about reversing this
propblem... what are we doing to enhace the balance of access to university
entry for the ten % that have managed by the glory of Modimo to finish
high school... yes we do ... we think in terms of standards of education
in SA-european university the ape town of this world and we forget what those
instution's raison d'tre is.  
Personal experience: in one of my trip back to SA in the couple years I was
stuck (in transit) at Portugal's Lisboa airport--- a work of ar indeed with
plastics artificial plants all over... I met a young students who had just
graduated MBA from UCT.. after a lengthy conversation she complained that
african students were taking down the standard of education at UCT.. 
I could not resist the temptation of lookingt myself in the nearest mirrow
to make sure that the person uderstoop what she meant.. yes ... The stand
she was talking about is that which has been created conciously or
uncocnsciously by the laws of apartheid and the fight against it... Of course
universities need to open up and educate not stamp the uneducated... if
we so wish to change to condition we need to bend to enrich to level education
and focus not on what niceties are there in teaching people that already have
some notion of the subject matter but figure a way of moving beyond tokenism
another issue of education in the 80's... believe reader the educatioon  and 
economic boat is common (my bad english construction of sayuiong we are in the
same boat) we need to foster ways of encouraging leaning among our mist..
and by the way Gavin .. we do need even retired professors to introduce
education even the lowest of our people... if we miss this oportunity of
conscripting peole like Gavin to teach the avarage SA community --which it
might surprise so,me to note that I typical South African is black and
uneducated... 

THose that were student in the 70s are now the ones that are leading us
for good or for worse into the new south africa ...  how did our taxes
through the intitutions of higher leaning prepare this people. Are we
really sure that we are not headed for a disaster. The repucussion of bad
education to all of us is too much.. 

Well I hope this digression has not bore you to death.. but that is reality.

The resent study by the commonweath group of human resourtce expert which
included Wilson... indicated that there is also a shortage of qualified 
personnel in the government sector ... how are we doing thus far as a nation.
How are we preparing young black gavan this time and what were their 
experiences in the 1980's  read this as I deal with Black Gavan Junior in the
next episode of If Gavan was black:

Salang
"Tswana for good bye"
  


is 
Gavan t
Newsgroups: sci.psychology