Long distances, falling standards, bad memories of boarding-school life and the high cost of private schooling are just a few reasons why increasing numbers of platteland parents are choosing to educate their children at home. Alette de Beer takes a look at this development.
We are all familiar with those “first day at school” photos: a plucky, gaptoothed child, all bony knees and combed fringe, dressed in an uncomfortable uniform and completely dwarfed by the suitcase they are carrying.
Behind every child who’s been declared school ready stands a parent or two with a lump in their throat. Especially for countless people in the platteland, where the first day of school marks the start of a series of difficult choices: do you send your child to the school in town where numbers are dwindling and the academics are average? Do you drive the 70km-100km from the farm to the school and back again twice a day? Do mom and child live in the “town house” during the week while dad holds the fort back at the farm? Or do you put the apple of your eye in the hostel of a good school where no one has any idea what the Grade 7 louts get up to after lights-out?
These days, a growing number of South Africans are opting for homeschooling. Your children remain in their relaxed home environment where they play with siblings and friends, and between climbing trees, setting the table, milking the cows, fetching eggs and playing pranks, they also learn to read, write, spell and count. They learn how to build robots, make knives and repair cars. They master design programmes and higher grade maths: they dance, play music, swim, do gymnastics or sewing… anything.
This story is from the Summer 2016/2017 edition of go! Platteland.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Summer 2016/2017 edition of go! Platteland.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
There are few secrets in Verlorenvallei
All platteland towns have that one famous (or infamous) character who knows everyone's business. Meet Livia Hoogenboezem, the keeper of every piece of gossip in Verlorenvallei...
Make magic with winter's abundance
This winter menu is our invitation to look beyond the bewildered herb garden, move out of your comfort zone and bake a loaf of bread, appreciate the beauty of a head of cabbage, and invite the rain gods to the table to feast with you on venison pie, pudding and cake.
It takes a family
Christian Fry and his fiancé, Pippa de Lange, arrived at Dombeya with just a day to spare before the Covid-19 hard lockdown commenced in 2020. Their purpose was to save the Fry family farm from being sold. They've settled into life in their Elands River Valley haven now but continue to dream big and work hard.
For the love of birds...
They may be called birdwatchers but they are in fact using their ears. As Johan van Zyl discovered on his maiden outing as an \"avian tourist\" with BirdLife South Africa to find the 450 bird species that live in the Garden Route and Little Karoo.
To the babbling brooks of Sabie
Roughly every five years, Jaco and Jens Reverchon get itchy feet. They hopped around Cape Town, moved up north to the Greater Kruger and then, recently, put down roots next to the Sabie River where they live a peaceful life with their animals.
Creativity & community in Dinokeng
The driving force behind the successful Makers Village in Irene has now implemented the same concept in Cullinan, creating an incubator and exhibition space for entrepreneurs and artists. Platteland dropped in at this budding creative hub to find out what it's all about and came away impressed.
Willie Strauss Never an idle moment
A variety concert... that is how to approach your life and career when you want to survive as an artist living in the platteland. So says singer, lyricist and radio food expert Willie Strauss, who entices visitors to Die Sinkstoor in Cullinan with traditional offal and his mother's Bushmanland boerekos.
To die for
How do you avoid the tourist avalanche if you live in an Afromontane forest where holidaymakers descend in December? You drive to lonely outposts in the mountains of the Cape, says photographer Obie Oberholzer, and you make pictures rather than take them.
1 Fiat 500 2ha 4 boys...19000 miles!
When the go-cart that an engineer father had built for his four sons couldn't handle the tufty terrain on their 2-hectare plot in Montana, Pretoria, they hunted down a Fiat 500 in a salvage yard. They only wanted its suspension system, but Mom intervened, the car was saved, and those little daredevils clocked up an impressive 19000 miles - all without leaving the plot.
SUTHERLAND Cold town, warm hearts
Life in Sutherland in the Northern Cape isn't always easy, but even those who leave tend to return. Come with us to find out why.