Well the school's pledge unveiled yesterday is getting alot of coverage. Can't say the responses I've heard and read, register overwhelming support for the pledge. Now that it's been released, the Minister of Education is inviting public comment within the next 30 days.
As I said in my previous post, it just so happens that we made a submission to The Presidency (almost eight months ago actually) to lobby them for support of the SA Patriot initiative's efforts to growing responsible citizenship and proudly presented the SA Patriot Commitment Statement we had developed.
We see now, from this announcement that the government recognises the value of our initiative, but for some reason didn't feel motivated to support a civil society movement in this regard. That's the only conclusion I will allow myself (to help me sleep at night) because I cannot entertain the thought that... (no, they couldn't have, could they?)
At any rate I think confining a pledge to school pupils is a bit self-righteous of us as the broader community of citizens. Afterall the decline in values manifested in violence and criminality at school is a mirror on the society we live in. We must not assume to teach that which we do not practice or expect children to do as we say and not as we do.
Now that the discussion has been brought into the public domain, I have decided to see it as an opportunity for us to get a word in, where we haven't been able to before.
As I said in my previous post, it just so happens that we made a submission to The Presidency (almost eight months ago actually) to lobby them for support of the SA Patriot initiative's efforts to growing responsible citizenship and proudly presented the SA Patriot Commitment Statement we had developed.
We see now, from this announcement that the government recognises the value of our initiative, but for some reason didn't feel motivated to support a civil society movement in this regard. That's the only conclusion I will allow myself (to help me sleep at night) because I cannot entertain the thought that... (no, they couldn't have, could they?)
At any rate I think confining a pledge to school pupils is a bit self-righteous of us as the broader community of citizens. Afterall the decline in values manifested in violence and criminality at school is a mirror on the society we live in. We must not assume to teach that which we do not practice or expect children to do as we say and not as we do.
Now that the discussion has been brought into the public domain, I have decided to see it as an opportunity for us to get a word in, where we haven't been able to before.
I call on all SA Patriots to do the same.
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