{"id":24684,"date":"2013-10-24T15:36:57","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T13:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/2013\/10\/a-little-thank-you-goes-a-long-way\/"},"modified":"2013-10-24T15:36:57","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T13:36:57","slug":"a-little-thank-you-goes-a-long-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/a-little-thank-you-goes-a-long-way\/","title":{"rendered":"A little thank you goes a long way"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

Growing up in the dusty, rural village of Gaphaahla, Limpopo, surrounded by female relatives who were all domestic workers, Setlogane Manchidi could easily have followed the same path as most of the village men and become a gardener.<\/p>\n

Instead, he had teachers who saw potential in him \u2013 and a mother who never stopped telling him education was important \u2013 which led to his pursuing university studies, despite the odds against him.
\nManchidi, now head of corporate social investment at Investec, paid homage to all teachers countrywide on Thursday night, 18 October, at the very first \u201cteachers\u2019 appreciation evening\u201d held by the School of Accounting at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.<\/p>\n

The function, inspired by World Teachers\u2019 Day earlier this month, had as its centre piece a colourful \u201cwall\u201d of handwritten notes of appreciation from Eastern Cape grade 11 pupils to their teachers. The evening\u2019s purpose was to recognise the role teachers play as agents of change in society, developing future leaders who will make a meaningful contribution to the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as education is key to everything, teachers are key to education,\u201d said Manchidi, the motivational speaker for the evening. \u201cTeachers are among the most important nation builders\u2026 The country looks to you to guide people such as myself, those who hang on to hope. We need to celebrate the profession that creates other professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encouraged teachers to teach from their hearts, not just from their books. \u201cWe might not remember what you told us but we will always remember how you made us feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said teachers were in a position to help pupils make meaningful decisions about their future careers. \u201cRemind your learners that when it comes to making career choices, they mustn\u2019t ask: \u2018What does South Africa need?\u2019 or \u2018What does the world need?\u2019. They should rather ask: \u2018What makes me come alive?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The evening\u2019s organiser Ansulene Prinsloo, an Accounting 1 lecturer, said teachers seldom got the thanks they deserved. \u201cWe rely on the hard work and dedication of all teachers, but specifically maths and accounting teachers. Without dedicated teachers, our role to develop future professional accountants would be compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said a secondary purpose of the evening was to cement links between the School of Accounting and maths and accounting teachers from the university\u2019s feeder schools.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the evening, Woodridge teacher Lisa O\u2019Grady said: \u201cSometimes you need someone from outside to remind you that you do make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindelwa Ngqina, a teacher from Ethembeni Enrichment Centre, said the evening was \u201cso interesting and motivating\u201d. \u201cTeachers need such motivation. Sometimes we take strain and feel like giving up.\u201d Her colleague Ntomboxolo Kula said the wall of notes from pupils to teachers was a reminder of the impact teachers make on their learners. \u201cYou are not just a teacher, you are a social worker, mother and friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Masiphathisane High School teacher Nosipho Ralane said words could not express how she felt about the thank you notes from pupils. \u201cTo hear, in your absence, that they appreciate you \u2013 I am so excited and so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Teacher<\/p>\n

Reading pupils\u2019 thank you notes on the \u201cteacher appreciation wall\u201d behind them were (from left) Ethembeni Enrichment Centre teacher Lindelwa Ngqina, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University School of Accounting director Prof Frans Prinsloo, NMMU<\/a> Accounting 1 lecturer Ansulene Prinsloo, Investec head of corporate social investment Setlogane Manchidi and teacher Ntomboxolo Kula, also from Ethembeni Enrichment Centre. Picture: Annemie Jacobs<\/p>\n

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Growing up in the dusty, rural village of Gaphaahla, Limpopo, surrounded by female relatives who were all domestic workers, Setlogane Manchidi could easily have followed the same path as most of the village men and become a gardener. Instead, he had teachers who saw potential in him \u2013 and a mother who never stopped telling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3330],"tags":[3338,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-24684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-port-elizabeth","7":"tag-mype-co-za","8":"tag-port-elizabeth-2","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}