The South African National School pledge - have your say!

I received the message below on a forum I belong to:

The Department of Education has published the National School Pledge for public comment.

Comments can be emailed to Mr Duncan Hindle at values@doe.gov.za by 14 March 2008.

The document is here: www.pmg.org.za/files/gazettes/080220educ-schoolpledge.pdf

If you do make a submission it would be interesting to hear what your thoughts on the matter are. This seems to have created some measure of controversy!

Comments

[Steve Hayes]

I have no objection to the wording of tghe pledge, but I do question the need to have a pledge at all. It seems like Americanisation to me, and a sort of indoctination. Do we really need that?

[jessica]

Over all the pledge is not that bad! Though unNecessary! i'm not so sure that our children who are so young need to be reminded of the injustices of the past!Why can we not just move on and live our lives now. if our children are going to have to say this pledge then i hope that the leaders will set the example by saying it too!

[Wessel Bentley]

Pledges worked for the "Silent generation" and the "Boomers". I suspect our children will look at it and say "WHATEVER...".

Good intention, wrong format.

[Janet]

Since I have issues with the wording of the Constitution and the resultant moral decay, I am not at all wild about this. I fail to see why we have to keep going back to the past. How can we ever move forward? Since leaders are not setting an example in "standing up for justice" how can we expect children to do so? How much of this "pledge"will they a) understand, b)implement and c) adhere to? I agree with Steve's comment re: Americanisation. I also agree with Jessica and echo Wessel's "whatever"! It's just going to be more money wasted on booklets, posters and committees! Nope, it doesn't really work for me.

[Anonymous]

I am opposed to the imposition of a pledge in our schools in general for the following reasons:
In my Bible it states very clearly that I shall have no other gods before God, and I am to put His ways before the ways of man. Therefore I cannot in all concscience allow my child to adhere to the entire Constitution as this promotes freedom of choice ito abortion, homosexual marriages et al, as these go against what God says in His Word, and that Word is my authority.

Specifically, I have a problem with my child honouring those who go before us in the struggle, as this implies that only those who fought in the struggle have any merit. For all the damage to human rights done by the early whites, this country would not be in the technologically advanced state it is if it weren't for these early pioneers. So what about remembering them too? I know they did wrong, but so too did those in the struggle who committed murder by planting bombs and used other methods of war.

So rather than incense and exclude a portion of the polulation, and rather than holding minors to task for the errors of today's elders, let's move on. This does not mean forgetting anyone, but means that we should look to including ALL parties in an accurate reflection of our history in our children's history books. Let's not allow the pendulum to swing too far to the right and exlude the entire white population.
Nadine