Read the 1985 WBHS School Magazine online
Courtesy of the WBHS Archives in the Oude Wijnberg Museum – the digital copy of the 1985 School Magazine.
Headmaster Mr Rowan Algie’s Magazine report:
The year 1985 will long be remembered in the evolution of South Africa as a year of political unrest, financial uncertainty, foreign pressure and constitutional change. There is little doubt that within five years we will be living in a very different South Africa.
Education has not gone unscathed. Schools in the black and coloured areas have been devastated and schools in white areas can count themselves fortunate in that they have not felt the full impact of the unrest. Our whole education system is also going through a period of change, with strong support from all sectors and race groups for a single education body and policy.
Many of us have continued to ignore the challenges of the day and hoped that the situation will again normalise itself. Unfortunately nothing will be the same again and parents and teachers will have to reassess the values they are inculcating in our boys and girls. No longer can we assume that whites are privileged and no longer can we presume that other races are lesser people.
Although this will mean change, this is not a time for despair. It is a period in which each one of us must take a positive step forward and, to ourselves and to the boys and girls we influence, stress the values of courage, humility, tolerance, hope and faith. We can and must believe that there is a place for all of us in this wonderful country.
Read the full magazine online.
