All That Shines is Not Gold

When we moved to Pietermaritzburg my father thought that the college was a good school for me. I was seven years old when I went to a private college in that city, in which it was possible to attend all your school life. That means from class one to standard 10 (grade 1 to grade 12).

It was a school for boys only and it was run by the Catholic Brothers. Some of them were our teachers in the various subjects.

Boys from all over the world attended the college. There were boys from France, England, Portugal, Spain, United States, China, Hungary, Germany, Italy, etc. Some of these boys were boarders which means that they lived there on the grounds in hostels. The others were day-boys and these went home at the end of each school day. I belonged to this last category.

The college was situated in a very large green area and was surrounded by many sports fields where it was possible to do all kinds of sports like tennis, basketball, swimming, cricket, rugby, athletics, etc.

Photo by Phillip Capper

Physical Education was an important part of the school program. Many sports were compulsory like swimming, gymnastics, athletics and of course rugby because it is the national sport. We spent a lot of time practicing sport. At the end of the school day if you wanted and you had time you could do another sport of your choice.

In the college there was also a big library which was situated in the basement of the Church. Here you could find any kind of book or magazine you liked. At the end of the lessons, before starting with the afternoon sporting activities, I often spent time in the library reading and taking part with the other boys in a chess tournament which lasted the whole year round.

Up to this point the reader might think that this college was fabulous but all that shines is not gold.

Generally the school was very strict and the lessons were taught in a very severe manner. It meant that although the Brothers were very good teachers they applied old fashion educational methods which also included corporal punishment. The use of a cane was common.

We had to wear a uniform. It was a blue safari suit with short pants during the summer. Long grey trousers, light blue shirt, blue tie and blue jacket with vertical gold/yellow stripes during the winter. We were also obliged to wear a basher all year round.

The morning-bell rang at 8 o’clock and anybody who was late had to have a justification letter written and signed by one’s parents. For me this was a great mishap because my parents couldn’t write in English and so they were unable to excuse me. So when I was late I just had to find a way to sneak in the classroom without being seen.

Although the lessons started at 8.30 am we had to arrive at school at ten to eight because every morning there was a general assembly where we said prayers and received the latest notices regarding which teachers were absent, who substituted them, if there were changes in the sport’s events, etc.

It sometimes happened that I arrived at school when the assembly was already in progress. In that case I would hide in the bicycle shed until the end. I then joined the others and went straight to the class and nobody noticed my delay.

At the end of the Assembly to start a new day they would sometimes have a surprise inspection. We had to stand one class at a time, shoulder to shoulder. The professor would walk slowly up and down the rows to verify that we were up to standard.

The school rulebook stipulated that the shoes had to shine, the socks had to be pulled up neatly, our nails had to be short and clean, the bottoms should not be missing and last but not least, our hair had to be two fingers above the collar of the shirt.

The names of the boys that did not meet these standards were written in a black book and they would receive a flog on the ass with a cane. The next day if they did not meet the standards again they would be flogged twice, the third day they would be flogged three times and so on until one was in perfect order.

I still feel anxiety and fear when I recall the daily interrogation of this or that subject. For example the mathematical times-tables were a real nightmare. The teacher made a boy stand with his hands held out in front of him with the palms upwards. With every wrong answer he would beat him on the tips of his fingers with the cane. The blows burned a lot and they seemed to sting in the head as well sending the little one knew up in smoke.

Some boys pulled their hands instinctively away when they saw the cane coming down on them. So you would hear the weaseling of the cane in the air but not the sound of the blow. I remember in particular one classmate who couldn’t keep his hands still. This behavior made the professor so angry that he would double the blows on the unfortunate boy.

Photo by Danie van der Merwe

Some afternoons we did cadet training which consisted of wearing a brown uniform and marching up and down the rugby field as if we played soldiers. We also had a shooting range where we had to shoot in a lying down position at a target. I did not like this kind of activity because it was too much like the military.

My school experience was not very positive mostly because I didn’t have good results. In the afternoons instead of doing my homework I preferred to spend my time doing sports or just riding around with my motorbike. In the evening when I finally got home I was so tired that I ate my dinner and fell asleep in front of the TV. Although I tried to get up early in the morning and study I always had too little time to do things. As a consequence I could not keep up with the others and subsequently I got into a lot of trouble because my marks were low.

Furthermore the school fees were not cheap. I knew this because every three months I went to the secretary’s office to pay with the money my mother gave me.

As I had no intention of throwing away my parent’s money I decided to leave the private school and go to a public one where no fees were required and the teachers were not so strict.

My choice revealed to be a good one because I regained my serenity and could finish my school with my senior high school certificate.

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