I'm sure many people are going to criticise me for publishing the following - because, they would say, I'm speaking ill of the dead!!!  Be that as it may, I feel the story must be told!!

In Std 6 & Std 7 (1956 & 1957) we had a certain "Maths" master - I shall just refer to him as "Teach"!!  We very soon realised that we had better behave ourselves in his class and so we never gave him any behaviour / discipline problems!!!  However it didn't take us much longer to realise that he was also a bully!!!

We must have been a bunch of 42 boys in class 6g.  Two or three of the guys were repeating Std 6.  Some of the guys in the class were also what we would today describe as "clueless" regarding Maths - I'll call them "strugglers".  "Teach" seemed to get great pleasure out of calling up these "strugglers" to the blackboard to complete a problem he had written upon the board.  It was always so obvious to the whole class that in 99% of cases these poor guys didn't have a clue as to how to proceed!

THAT was when the bullying would start - and it took various forms!!  "Teach" was a big man, certainly compared to 90% of the guys in the class!  One "form" was to grab the hapless victim by an arm and shove and pull him back and forth in front of the board, all the while talking to the victim about how stupid or lazy he was etc.   Sometimes this would end with "Teach" literally bashing the victim's head against the board!!!!

One of the guys who was repeating Std 6 was Freddie Malan.  Freddie was easily as big as "Teach" and could probably have "sorted him out" physically, but, he was a kind of guy who "wouldn't hurt a fly", a really good soul.  And unfortunately, as one of the "strugglers" he was a regular "target" for bullying by "Teach".  Many were the times when Freddie was being manhandled up front by "Teach" and the thought in every one of the other 41 minds was:  "Donder him, Freddie, donder him!!" - we all believed Freddie was physically capable of doing so!!  ("Donder him" = Afrikaans slang for "Beat him up")

Another "form" was the following:  "Teach" would usually have the blackboard eraser in his hand.  The back of the eraser was a wooden block and, again while "talking" to the victim at the board, he would methodically hit the back of his knees with the wooden part of the eraser!! Understandably, these guys would end up with serious bruises at the back of the knees.

Then in 1957 something happened that made all of us in the class quite "gleeful"!  At the start of that year I had joined a Gym which had just opened up the road from home.  It was owned and run by one Paul Smit who had won the "Mr South Africa" bodybuilding title a couple of times.  In 1956 he had competed in London in the "Mr Universe" competition (the premier bodybuilding competition of the time), placing third.

Paul drove an old DKW car which was very low-slung.  Apparently, he was in a queue of cars at a traffic light in Parow when the driver in front of him was a bit slow in moving after the light had changed to Green for them.  So Paul tooted gently on his hooter:  the next second the driver of this car jumps out and storms over to Paul's car, demanding to know why Paul was hooting at him - and promptly takes a swing at Paul through the window.  Paul opened his car door, got out and as he straightened up, this guy takes another swing at him.

Paul easily avoided the swing and, lightning-fast, punched this guy twice - over each eye!!  At that point this guy backed off and got back into his car.  The guy of course was our "Teach" and I heard the story from Paul himself the next day.  A day or two later, "Teach" walks into our classroom sporting two serious "black eyes"!!  I of course had told all the guys about the incident and that's why we were all so gleeful that this bully had got his "come-uppance"!!

Of course, never one to miss an opportunity, one of the guys (the late Albert Attfield) said to "Teach": "Sir, what happened to your eyes??"  "Teach" replied that he had trod on a rake on his farm and the rake had hit him twice in the face!!  I don't know how 42 guys managed to keep from bursting out laughing!!!  ("Teach" had a small-holding somewhere out Kraaifontein way).

Although perhaps a little too late for us, the bullying days of "Teach" were coming to an end:  one of my classmates was Eldred de Jager.  He had been at school with me from around 1952 (Std 2) and for years we'd known him as "Boetie".  Boetie's Dad, Eric, was about the height I am now but had a thicker build - his forearms were as thick as my calves and he had a dark natural "tan"!!

Eric was in the Salt River Fire Brigade and had a club foot.  He also had rather long arms with lots of hair on his knuckles.  Along with a face that reminds me these days of Robert Mugabe, he reminded me of a gorilla!!!.  But, a kindly, helpful gorilla!!!

We used to have "Cadets" on a Friday and all the boys therefore wore shorts on those days.  On one particular Friday, Boetie had been hit with the blackboard eraser by "Teach" and had terrible-looking bruises at the back of his knees.  After school he rushed home to change into long pants before his Dad got home.  But when he arrived home he discovered that his Dad had come home earlier than usual!  He tried to sneak into his bedroom but, his Dad called him back to where he was sitting in the lounge and asked him to turn around.

He asked Boetie how he'd got the bruises and Boetie had to tell him.  The account that now follows was told to me (and later to all the other guys in the class) by Boetie.  The Monday morning, Boetie went to school accompanied by his Dad.  When they arrived at reception, Eric told the secretary he wanted to see the principal (at that time Dr Sieberhagen).  Before she could say anything Eric knocked on and opened Dr Sieberhagen's office door.

Dr Sieberhagen was obviously surprised at this un-announced intrusion!!  Eric greeted Dr Sieberhagen, introduced himself and then asked Boetie (now wearing long pants) to show Dr Sieberhagen the bruises, explaining that this was done by "Teach".  Next comes the part I love:  not waiting for amy comments from Dr Sieberhagen, this VERY intimidating, gorilla-like man leaned his big hairy knuckles on Dr Sieberhagen's desk and said something like: "If a boy is naughty in class, give him a caning.  But, this was done because my son struggles and doesn't understand Maths!!  If I ever find out that this teacher has done this to another pupil, I will personally come down here and donder him"!!  (Reminder:  "Donder him" = Afrikaans slang for "Beat him up")

Dr Sieberhagen was speechless and with that Eric de Jager and Boetie turned around and left the office, Eric going back home and Boetie going to class!!  I do believe that was the end of the bullying by "Teach".

As for "speaking ill of the dead"!!  A good friend of "Teach", and a fellow staff member, was Dawie Maritz, our Gym master in all standards and our Woodwork master in Stds 6 & 7.  I got to know Dawie outside of school around my Std 9 year and once I'd left school we became very good friends.  Some months before the 1990 reunion of the Class of 1960, I visited Dawie at his home in Bellville and he gave me the postal address of "Teach".

I told Dawie about "Teach"'s bullying and said to him that I was going to confront "Teach" at the reunion about his bullying!!  Dawie had no problem about this and in fact encouraged me to do so!!  Alas, I did not get the opportunity as "Teach" never responded to any of my letters of invitation and did not attend the reunion.  By the time of the next reunion in 2000, "Teach" had passed away.

Over the years I often asked myself 2 questions:

• what was it that drove "Teach" to behave in this way!!!???
• why did we not complain to the Prinicipal??