The 2023 Chronicle

A huge thank you must go the department’s staff, who not only taught our boys but sent them on this voyage, this journey of knowledge and understanding. To Mr Bradley McManus, Mrs Leigh Kotze and our intern Mr Simeon Goddard, thank you for helping grow and develop the History Department while teaching Michaelhouse boys the value of learning from history,

as the US historian Carl Becker once said: “The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves – a much more important thing; it prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather than to foretell the future.”

AFRIKAANS

Head of Department: Mr Chris van der Berg Staff: Miss Marcel Cornelius, Miss Emsone Fourie, Mr J-P Olivier Part-time Staff: Mrs Ilne Visagie Tutor: Mr Alex Deetlefs he 2022 matric IEB results were of a very high standard again: 14% of our boys got an A and 53% got 60% or higher. I want to congratulate our boys and staff, and thank them both for their hard work. Afrikaans remains a very difficult subject for most pupils in our province. On 11 February I attended the IEB National Conference online to keep abreast of the requirements of the IEB. I reported back to the other members of the department when I returned to Michaelhouse. Our external academic programme is still not 100% up and running after Covid, and for a third year the ATKV Spelathon and the Taalbond bilingual exams did not take place. We are ready to host both these events as soon as the organisations in charge want to start again. Pit Productions are fully operational again and visited Michaelhouse on 24 May. As a result of copyright issues they changed their approach from merely being a performance of extracts from Donkerweb (the matric set book) and the Touloper anthology (the matric prescribed poems) to a workshop on the novel and the poems that got some of the boys involved on stage and also included a quiz. I think our boys definitely benefited more from this approach. We look forward to bringing them back next year. Overall it has been a very busy year, because Michaelhouse is a very busy place with a host of activities. Despite all the hurly- burly, it was an easier year than 2022 because we got back into a normal routine again, and I am pleased that most of the boys T

and staff are “Michaelhouse fit” again. May we never have to do online schooling again! There will not be any change of staff in the Afrikaans Department that I am aware of and that is a huge benefit to both the boys and the department. The challenge is to keep up to date with new developments in education and our subject. We have to make our pupils realise that Afrikaans is still relevant in South Africa. Mr Olivier has been appointed as IEB marker for the final examinations for 2023. He will report back to the department at the start of next year. Ek is ’n potlood – ’n simplistiese voorwerp in die hande van ’n verbeeldingryke verstand. Ek was net ’n stuk hout toe ek begin het, maar ek is ’n nuttige skryfinstrument gemaak. Ek skribbel gereeld notas neer, skryf idees neer en maak kunswerke. Ek beleef ’n groot mate van frustrasie terwyl ek oor die papier beweeg, want ek help om iemand anders se visie lewendig te maak. Elke keer wat ek geslyp word, word ek korter, maar my doel word meer gefokus en my kragte vernuwe. Met elke poging vang ek die gedagtes en emosies van my gebruiker vas terwyl ek die wêreld deur hulle oë ervaar. My reis behels soms dat ek gekou en gebuig word, of self verloor word, maar dit is deel van die skeppingsproses. Ek het bygedra tot gedigte, liefdesbriewe en self inkopielysies. Ten spyte van die oënskynlike eenvoud van my missie, is ek baie trots op die kreatiwiteit, idees en die produk waarvoor ek staan. En wanneer my lewe uiteindelik eindig, hoop ek dat ek bygedra het tot die skepping van iets betekenisvol. EK IS ‘N POTLOOD Dylan Noach (B Block)

You will grow so much and be so proud to overcome your homesickness! Remember your parents are not just giving you the gift of the best education they are giving you the gift of independence. A difficult thing for a parent to do! Pat Noel via Facebook

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