REPORTS over the last two days in The Star regarding the alleged ill-treatment meted out to Grade 11 students at Parktown Boys High School should serve as a klaxon horn of potential mayhem to many parents of boys in school hostels.
The practice of initiation of new boys into a boarding house (hostel) has its roots in some of the finer English public schools.
Some of our older and more prestigious schools emulated this practice to promote the importance of "the old school tie" mentality.
The notion that it "builds character" or "encourages bonding" is sheer bunkum.
My own initiation at another well-known Boys High School in Johannesburg was, as I recall, fairly innocuous and certainly never physically harming.
My son's initiation and treatment at the same school some 30 years later was sufficient enough for us to remove him from the school.
That it has come to this stage before one lady has the courage (and it usually is a woman who sees through the macho nonsense) to call a halt to the shameful deeds of the senior boys is a sad reflection on the management and control of Parktown Boys headmaster and staff.
Bob Broom
Bedfordview, Gauteng
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