English Prelim

Dastrix, you managed to upload that copy yet?

Would be interested to see for myself what it was like and if the exams for the kids are any easier these days? :)
 
I found a beautiful gem in my history book today. At the moment our class is discussing the rise of Afrikaner nationalism. In one of the "Did you know" boxes, they said that in apartheid, Afrikaners were taught every year about Boer Generals and the Great Trek, and no African history. While I don't dispute the validity of that, it is ironic. The situation has been reversed.

Schitz011: The standard has gone down and some of our teachers are rather open about this - rather surprisingly. In 2000 our school got 10 As for matric...now it's bad if the matric year doesn't 35+ As. Apparently what has happened is the following [talking about English language specifically]: In the old system they used to test a broad range of language devices, but - and here is the crucial difference - you didn't know which ones, and you had to know each language part in depth. Now they test [for certain] every language device but it is only 1 or 2 marks. It does not get deeper than that. Having said that though, I still find some of the matric comprehensions we are practising rather challenging.
 
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i was taught some african history and i grew up during apartheid... tell me the people who write the textbooks... what are their names?
 
Please someone post the paper asap, as well as other choice quotes from your curriculum. I'm interested to know how deep this is- and it is very relevent to the identity hot-topic debates in SA. If this paper is as bad as it sounds, I would also raise it to the attention of the BBC.
 
Dominic Rooney said:
I found a beautiful gem in my history book today. At the moment our class is discussing the rise of Afrikaner nationalism. In one of the "Did you know" boxes, they said that in apartheid, Afrikaners were taught every year about Boer Generals and the Great Trek, and no African history. While I don't dispute the validity of that, it is ironic. The situation has been reversed.
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The word in question here is "relevance". African history was not relevant to any Europeans, so it would have been a waste of time to dig into that subject matter.

My case in point: ask most Americans about native Indian history, and you will also get a blank expression in return.
 
That's because, when asked simple questions, Americans battle anyway.
 
schitz011 said:
Dastrix, you managed to upload that copy yet?

Would be interested to see for myself what it was like and if the exams for the kids are any easier these days? :)
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Just waiting for the fax, as soon as I got it I will upload it!
 
Lol. :) find one good statement in the Pre-Lim abt whites.. i dare you :P

and even if its not completely bad.. why does a whole paper have to be on colour.. its english damit
 
To make you belieeeeeve that you are tuuuuurning blaaaaaaaack....looooook into this paper....
 
a-person said:
Debbie2 you seem quite confident that you can initiate change?
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Nope. I do think it is important to keep an eye out for this kind of thing, and, if warranted, to record it- academics and the media do it well. And I am very interested in communication theories + identity issues + bettering education in SA - so just building and testing what I think.
 
Debbie2 said:
Nope. I do think it is important to keep an eye out for this kind of thing, and, if warranted, to record it- academics and the media do it well. And I am very interested in communication theories + identity issues + bettering education in SA - so just building and testing what I think.
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Me too.
 
The cartoon at end of the paper was about a lil black boy writing his christmas list and he tells this lil white girl next to him that he isnt going to write it and the white girl explains thats good cause there are so many starving/people with nothing in africa and we should be thankful and the lil black boy said no its cause his hand is tired of writing so much...the only thing I really found funny :)

Then 1 of the questions was show who the more sincere one was, i really just wanted to write the lil WHITE GIRL, not the lil BLACK boy :p

I end up writing just the lil girl :)
 
Ok, thats just uncalled for.

I wouldn't want my children being taught such biased stuff..
 
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