I was today at a school, West Rand Primary in Westdene. Here are their objectives as spelled out on a big sign in the hall. I like the critical thinking skills followed by the Seventh Day Adventist bit a line or two later. See how many other illogic bits you can spot. This is not a private school, it’s a government school, but it is also a Seventh Day Adventist school. How does that work?
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm196/Tweefo/West%20rand_zpsy13tdiia.jpg
One more reason why we should have explicitly separated church and state, like the Americans did. Probably too late now.
Anyway, what with most of our government schools (and most of our private schools, for that matter) being in the condition they’re in, it probably hardly matters.
Me, I am perforce out of the education industry: I was retrenched when the private school at which I worked restructured, and not being formally qualified in education, chances are small that I’ll get a job at any other school. In fact, being almost fifty and white and Afrikaans, chances are small that I’ll get any employment of any kind, so you may well see me soon, at a traffic light near you, with a placard around my neck. 
In the meantime, there is this: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/10/28/at-students-request-satanists-plan-invocation-at-bremerton-high-school-alongside-christian-coach/
which province are you living Brian? There is a very lively industry in tutoring and extra classes after school in the big cities. You work from home in the afternoons and earn more than the average teacher. I paid the same amount in extra classes as for school fees to get my boys through matric.
I too have seen this type of lofty wording displayed at schools. Essentially they are saying that critical thinking is encouraged, as long as it occurs within the belief system of religion xyz. It’s obviously nonsensical because critical thinking means considering EVERYTHING intellectually, even religion xyz. This is a travesty of what critical thinking should be.
In “normal” state Christian schools many kids end up going through the little motions of prayer and singing hymns etc. during school hours, but come 14H00 they return home to a more or less secular household (own observation). In contrast I can imagine that parents who go the trouble of enrolling their children in a school subscribing to a specialized flavour of Christendom such as this one, probably also give their children an unhealthy dose of the same medicine at home.
Rigil
Awesome, I’d love all kinds of other religions to get in on the act and turn the field into a circus.
Funny, me and Majin were driving past a school this morn and had a similar discussion. Some-and-other school advertising itself as “christian” and “holistic” in big bold lettering outside the gate. This all means sweet nothing. I know in my school-going days the “Christian” that got tacked onto all the school marketing material and signage basically meant very little in the everyday goings-on of the school. You just had to bear the odd morning (not every morning) prayer and the monday morning sermon, which you basically daydreamed through if you weren’t trying to stave off imminent sleep.
The great thing about organised religion is that most kids find it mind-numbingly boring.
To develop and appreciation for an understanding of the Bible as the written Word of God, an infallible rule of faith and practice for the Christian. (sic)
This does not inspire a conviction of any infallible written Word. What I find particularly grating about the idea that the Bible is the written Word of God and infallible, is that it does not merely promote Christianity, but a fundamentalist version thereof.
1 The bible is the infallable.
2 The bible (is claimed to be) written by people who were inspired by god.
3 People are fallable, and thus could not take down an infallable version of god’s word.
Contradiction.
You have to wonder if they’ve ever considered this. or maybe they magic-think it away by saying that god made them infallable while they were writing down that crap. Also, what do they make of the babble’s famous multitude of direct contradictions?
Why, they flatly deny the existence of any real™ contradictions and explain them away as artefacts of fallible human comprehension. (Of course, it escapes them entirely that their own conception is also an artefact of their own even more fallible human comprehension.)
Snarky Princeton-Plainsboro diagnostician, Gregory House, MD, said it best: “If you could reason with religious people, there wouldn’t be any religious people.”
'Luthon64
I’m in Gauteng. I have in fact done tutoring before, and promptly registered myself with some tutoring companies. But nowadays, every second student and his dog is a tutor and the competition has become murderous - there is no way to make a teacher’s salary anymore. At least not easily!
But it is something to help bring in some cash. I actually don’t want anything more than a half-day job at the moment, because I have decided to take the plunge and focus a bit on my painting. I don’t have any dependents and can always move to an ultra-cheap apartment (or even single room, like I had as a student). I have come to see that life is too short not to spend it doing what we actually want to do.
I notice that there is also quite some demand for people who can paint murals (e.g. for kids’ rooms). There is a husband-and-wife team doing very good work, but I noticed they are already fully booked months ahead, so perhaps there is a gap in that market - will investigate. Not that I have done murals before, but for school concerts I was always the guy who painted the stage props and backgrounds. 
It also remains a mystery why God, who wrote the Bible as a guide for fallible humans (a fallibility known to him, since it’s been demonstrated beyond a doubt on several occasions since the original deciduous fruit incident), would write it in such a way that we would find it self-contradictory. But I guess the flock would then point out that it is really a test of faith to accept the Bible with all its contradictions unquestioningly. Just can’t win, hey?
Rigil
Good for you. I see no reason why pursuing something enjoyable cannot also be profitable. Do let us know how its working out.
Rigil
PS: Don’t use chrome or lead based pigments in kid’s rooms. :-X
Perhaps you could combine your two loves/careers by teaching art?
I have considered this: art lessons could be a valuable extra income. But I’m not sure I’d be much good at it. Plus, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to train the competition. 
Anyway, I first have to teach myself: I am still at that stage where I make three mess-ups for every one painting that works out to marketable quality. But I have seen what happens when people make a point of producing two or three small paintings every week. They go through a huge learning curve and within six months you will not recognize their work. Which is why I now want to simply make time. I have pottered around with it for years and never got anywhere because I never had the time or energy.
Well, as I sit here I am taking a break from today’s painting. This particular one is a complete stuff-up. But as Ed Wood said, my next one will be better.
But that’s very good! Vincent van Gogh made dozens of paintings of that silly little pot of sunflowers and couldn’t get any right. You should of course aim for higher standards than that. It may also help if you change your surname to Tshabalala or something.
Just paint Zuma porn you’ll be famous in seconds.
Vincent Tshabala? Sipho van Gogh? Wait, Van Gogh’s already taken: believe it or not, there is an artist by name of Van Gogh already working in South Africa, namely the botanical illustrator Joan van Gogh. And yes, she’s related to him.
Apart from the excesses of absinthe and the thing with his ear, Vincent is actually a major inspiration for me. Like him, I came to art comparatively late in life, and without much natural talent for it. And like him, I make slow progress by means of lots and lots of failed painting.
Now there’s an idea. Then again, it has been done many times now, so the novelty is wearing off. Perhaps a painting of a black Jesus might work?
I don’t think a canvas has been done of Zuma trying to pronounce the name of a big number. You can call it Listen Properly.
Or modern sculpture: A Damien Hirst type installation of Jesus preserved in a formaldehyde tank. Although … the possibility exists that he might escape on the third day, thinking that’ll show 'em!, and spoil the exhibition for everyone.
Rigil
One of the things still sold for $128 million! Damn! I wouldn’t hang it in my bathroom for fear of it causing constipation. I suppose that’s why I’m not an art critic. (Also, I don’t own any bow ties.)
