When I attended primary school, I remember those who were classified as the “dunce” children. Such a label on anyone—a dunce is a person who is considered slow at learning or stupid—could cause irreparable damage to one’s self esteem. Those children were placed in the ‘B,’ ‘C’ and ‘D’ classes and, sadly, many of them slipped through the system because of the absence of the attention they needed to cultivate whatever natural abilities they had.
They were children just like me. Most of us were coming from the same backgrounds. We had hardworking parents who were trying their best to ensure our needs were met. For many of those children, the tales of their parents were similar or identical–they too would have passed through a school system that did not fulfill their needs.
I remember looking at my peers at times and thinking that they were fortunate to not have the pressure that we, the ones in the ‘A’ classes, had. It often appeared that it did not matter whether they did their work or not, because they were the ones who would end up in the Community High Schools.
