Dunkirk, small boats and independent education | Prof Jonathan Jansen

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [03:02]it's a, it's a very small school, and we deliberately built this model. My husband Gershom was a, he's a Drakies Boys Choir alumni, and it's a similar model to that, where you keep your classes very, very small. So we take a max of ten. Because the entire premise of, of how we educate is based on relationships, building relationships with the children so that, to facilitate really building whole child in the truest sense of building whole child, not just a marketing sense of building whole child. We expose them to things that they wouldn't normally have exposure to. That's very important to us. So we collaborate with, Lego Education from on global levels. For example, we test market a lot of their kids, educational Lego. We're a TED registered school, so our kids go through learning how to give TED talks. Essentially, what we're trying to build is the type of person who leaves matric with more than just that thin line of marks across the top of the page. You know, we need, we need a lot more depth to that person. When they leave our school, we've done our jobs right. If the first time they're in varsity and they get presented with something challenging, they don't throw their hands in the air saying, oh, well, I was never taught that. I can't do that. They Actually think to themselves, okay, well, what skills do I have? What resources can I employ? What can I tap into here? Then we've done our job right. So that's the type of school that we have, and that's what we build.

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [06:42]So what is the role of the individual school? And here, ideally, I wish I had more space in last week's column, because I wanted to talk about the schools that have made a lasting impression on the country, schools like Saint Barnabas, you know, in the ninety, early nineties, before we even had democracy for all. Schools like, Sacred Heart, I mean, I can go down the line, and schools here like this one, unfortunately, they're quite expensive, but one with Cacti and Channel with opposite that is Cruz, the unbelievable, schools, public schools like, like Ann Morton's, Red School in Pinelands, these are schools that, despite what's happening around them, public and private, you know, are schools that say, look, in the space that we occupy, in the ecology that we inhabit, we are going to make a major difference. Now, what is their major difference? Their major difference is that every single year they take in a new cohort of kids, they graduate another bunch of kids, and so over a period of ten years, you can see the impact on the system, even though you one school. And what do those schools do? They do two things at the same time. They, on the one hand, place the traditional emphasis on, you know, academic results. And most private schools, most independent schools do that fairly well,

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [08:10]you

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [08:10]know, and they, the math and science results are up, you know, there, there is drama, arts, and music, there's, you know, a, a computer lab, there's, they have all the STEAM-y plays. But most of those schools, certainly in the book that we just completed last year on admissions policies of schools, that deal with non-adoptal students, they do a lousy job. And housing job of the other part of our commitment, and that is how to teach young people to be decent

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [08:45]in,

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [08:46]in a dangerous world. And so I look for schools that do both those things. On the one hand, giving the kids a solid academic education, on the other hand, teaching them how to be generous with their giving, teaching them how to be comfortable in their relationships with people who don't look like them or pray like them or speak their language. And when you have a school that gives you those two things in combination, then you are making a difference. In the way that this country desperately needs in all nine provinces. So don't give up on your initiative. Don't give up on what you do. Just make sure that the children coming out of that school are countercultural, by which I mean that they understand the difference between their money and other people's money.

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [19:17]the other day I spoke at the bishop's old boys, which was quite a thing.

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [19:22]I can imagine, yeah.

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [19:26]I was noticing so many rich people, outside of, outside of Stellenbosch, you know, but where I live. but, I, see them listen, I, I don't want you guys to, you know, get your, you know, all this bad English expression,

Gavin, intro voice or played clip · [19:46]you

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [19:46]know, not, yeah, I know, I just, as I thought about it, I thought it might be inappropriate, but, the, I said to them, here you are, a whole lot of really wealthy men, black and white, okay? Stop wringing your hands about what you can do for transformation. I can tell you very simply what you can do. right next to me was Raymond Ackerman. Okay.

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [20:07]Yeah.

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [20:07]And I say, you know what you're asking me? If you said, okay, we take in, 200 boys into the A-A-A-B single year, you know what, we're going to commit to making sure that all those 200 boys starting next year, 40 of them will come in, fully come in for both a hostel and education as a result of the scholarship scheme that we set up. You do that, and you begin to change the complexion of what, your graduates will look like. No.

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [20:37]Exactly.

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [20:38]No, it's, it's tough, of course, it's very hard to take a smart kid from Kersack and Caledonia and put them in the super-duper wealthy school, but I say you're never going to get around it,

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [20:48]around

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [20:48]this, debate unless you open up access, use your resources to do that, you know? What, what's bishops, for example? I'm just using that school because it's close to my heart. I, really believe there's some truth, whether or when they want to change our education. What's bishops from taking a school in a township and saying, we're going to work with you as our partner school and make sure that whatever we are able to offer in online learning, we are going to make sure that you have the data and devices and connectivity to do the same thing.

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [22:01]What stops you from sitting that out and making your school the base for that? You know, I just think there's so much selfishness and self-centeredness, you know, and overthinking, and so on. So, you know, I, I, and I would tell them, I said, look, I, I do probably like half my salary away in single line, you know. As a professor, we don't have that much money, but I give it away. And to make sure that people who can't afford a good education, that schools like down the road, the analysis of a girl, literature, manga, who can't feed their children during lockdown, that's where I put my personal resources, you know, in order to make a difference. Now, imagine if you're wealthy, and you had a school, and you had a board like these fancy schools, how much more of a difference you can make? And then I use my energy, I use the little skills, the few skills that God gave me. To make sure that I use it to benefit others, you know? So I think a lot of South Africans do that. I think there's a lot of people in the NPO sector that really do that. In fact, as I said, last night in a program in the Netherlands, I said, you know, if you collapse the NPO sector in South Africa, this country will disappear overnight,

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [23:14]okay?

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [23:15]We're under the illusion that government runs this country. Actually, there's a whole lot of ordinary people that do

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [23:21]it.

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [23:22]And so on. So let's do more of that, you know, to, to, I call that, as you know from my writings, the, the model underground, the people that we don't see,

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [23:31]that

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [23:31]keep things together, you know? And that's my encouragement to your school. Let's do our primary job well,

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [23:39]which

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [23:39]is to, as I said, the academic and the social, and then let's make sure that the broader impact of the school Is such that people have no doubt that this is a school that never reaches its relative advantage in the interest of the broader community.

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [25:14]imagine we had access to resources to develop more of that, to just do more of what we're already doing. It's such an exciting prospect, even if I think about where we're moving in the hybrid space. You know, our big investment this year is truly hybrid classrooms, which is, in other words, replicating in whatever scenario is presented that the kids have a classroom experience, a proper classroom experience, even if they're sitting at home or the teacher's at home or whatever gets thrown at us next. Just imagine we had a scenario where we had a partner school who had appropriate infrastructure, who could piggyback off our lessons, who, when the teacher didn't arrive that day, the school head could say, oh, well, that's, you know, it's not convenient, but we'll just piggyback onto Edu Inc today. Or there was a teacher who teaches one particular lesson really, really well, and you could just tune in for that lesson and get real best practice. Imagine that will. And I, for me, it, it seems really doable. And it's where we can really partner with our less privileged schools. but I, I also really love your, your idea of, of masterclasses for teachers, because if we can uplift there and upskill there, we're also making another massive impact.

Jonathan Jansen, guest · [28:35]And, and, man, I tell you, you can, you can do this, you know, because, I mean, just a simple thing, like developing in each child, which is what happened to me, in a, in a fairly ordinary school, just developing in each child a sense of what they can do, a sense of the enormous potential, or what I call in the book, just this message I give everywhere I go in the world, actually, that you're smarter than you think. You really are much smarter than your own mind sometimes tells you. And that in and of itself will, is, can be such an encouragement, you know? And, and so on. But I sort of go back to the non-state sector, if you will. I'm only beginning to realize what a powerful impact one man has on this notion of giving, and that is this organization called Gift of the Givers. Now, I, you know, I, I grew up in the, you know, heading out of evangelical fundamentals, you know, and church, and my parents, bless their souls, you know, made sure that all of us memorize of the Bible and that kind of thing. nothing wrong with that. But, you know, M.T.S. Suleiman of Gift of the Givers, I landed in trouble with a lot of my Christian friends, because I made the, the factual point that over the Christmas period, this organization did more for giving, you know, hungry Christians than all the churches combined, you know. And I thought to myself, And yet his, his focus is not on the whistleblower, his focus is not on fake media, his focus is on poverty, his focus is on believing higher, his focus is on negotiating, the freedom of people held up by terrorist groups. You know, he works throughout the continent, but have you heard in the, the 20 years of Gita, there is one scandal about one cent, okay, nothing, because of the integrity of grip. So I mention Intias only because for every Intias and Sliman, there is, you know, a Kuminidu from who work for this international group, these, are on the environment, these are here months ago just to go back to kids to Antarctica. I can just give you a list of this. You guys, you know, and so don't underestimate the cumulative value. Of all of us doing, this kind of work in our corner of the vineyard, it does make a difference.