Here endeth the lessons: Three teachers’ farewell after nearly 40 years of service

After nearly four decades of dedicating their lives to the upliftment of children in Hanover Park, three teachers at one school said their final farewells last week.

Mylene Smith, Sharon Raphael and Cristina Smith have written their last reports, given their last lessons and taken their last tea break at Morgenson Primary School.

Their hard work was rewarded with a fancy farewell at the Hyatt Hotel last week where they enjoyed a dinner with their colleagues and shared their joint experiences over the years.

Sharon, 62, who has been teaching at the school for 42 years, says she will never forget her first day on the job.

At just 19 years old, she walked into the Standard 5 classroom to teach a group of children just a few years younger than her.

“The first year was rough.

“I was only a few years older than them and they were groot already and I was intimidated.

“But I pushed through and over the years I made sure I worked across various grades,” recalls Sharon.

Mylene remembered walking into the school in 1982 at just 20 years old.

After serving for 40 years, she left as the Deputy Principal after teaching mostly Grade 6 and 7 pupils.

“It’s been 40 years and I feel like I served my time.

“We have had many challenges but we always did extra things to keep the learners involved in their education. My plan now is to rest,” she says.

The oldest at 65 years old, and after serving the school for 38 years, Cristina says the biggest challenge she faced was poverty and violence.

“I taught mostly Grade 1...

“We faced many issues with poverty and hungry children.

“We did our best to mitigate those factors and to create a safe space,” she says.

“Among some of the biggest challenges was a lack of parental involvement and while the school was not in the gang violence, we would see the absenteeism rate increase dramatically during gang fights as children were too scared to come to school.”

Sharon agrees and says their mission to create safe spaces saw the school grow from just 340 learners to 1041 learners.

“In those years, Morgenson was known as the ‘corky school’ and we addressed this by investing in children.

“Those years we would sommer see gang fights on the school as the gangsters fought with knives and pangas, but at that time they would always make sure the children were in class.

“My advice to the parents is to invest in the school and not see it as a place where you just send your children and the teachers must do everything.”

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