1. The Value of
Education
By: Alisha Punjwani and Cejay Zhu

2. Background Information
The Bantu Education Act of 1953 prevented black education from
even coming close to white education. Under this act, African schools
became government funded and regulated, after which apartheid was
taught in the schools. The mission schools that had existed prior to
this act decided to close rather than teach the apartheid required by
the government. In school, black children could only learn what the
government wanted, which was how to be good servants, gardeners,
and factory workers. The white children, on the other hand, were
taught arithmetic, language, science, and history. Each day, black
children went to school for 3 hours, where they sat and studied in
overcrowded classrooms and hallways. Black school facilities were
nothing compared to white school facilities, and because of all this,
many blacks were angered to the point of revolt. By implementing an
unfair education system, the whites of South Africa hoped to keep
the blacks forever down as a lesser, subser vient species.

3. Education as seen in the Book
Medium to God’s message
necessary element for a job
basic education-passed around with stories
produces feeling of superiority
means of manipulation
alternative for “gang life”
liberation
way to escape poverty
more important for men to achieve

4. Passage #1
“See how the devil speaks to you,” the cross-eyed evangelist gloated.
“Everybody needs Christ. Our forefathers, who for centuries had lived in
utter darkness in the jungles of Africa, worshipping false gods involving
human sacrifices, needed Christ bad. That’s why God from his sacred
seat in heaven one day looked at Africa and said to Himself, ‘I cannot in
all fairness let those black children of mine continue to follow the evil
path. They’ve already suffered enough for the transgressions of their
cursed father, Ham. I’ve got to save them somehow.’ ‘But how can I save
them,’ the mighty God wondered, ‘for there’s none among them who
knows how to read or write, therefore I cannot send them my Ten
Commandments.’ God worried over the problem for days and nights,
until one day he stumbled across the solution: He would send to Africa
his other children in Europe, who already knew the Word.
Page 58

5. Passage #2
She told me that going without a job was nerve-
wracking, that she was tired of being turned away
from jobs at the Indian place because she could not
read or write, because she did not have a permit,
because she had a suckling infant and because she
was pregnant.
page 67

6. Passage #3
As we had no nursery rhymes nor storybooks, and besides, as no one in the house knew how to read, my
mother’s stories served as a kind of library, a golden fountain of knowledge where we children learned about
right and wrong, about good and evil.
I learned that virtues are things to be always striven after, embraced and cultivated, for they are amply
rewarded; and that vices were bad things, to be avoided at all costs, for they bring one nothing but trouble and
punishment
I learned that sagacity and quick wits are necessary in avoiding dangerous situations; and that fatuity and
shortsightedness make one go around in circles, seemingly unaware of the many opportunities for escape.
I learned that good deeds advance one positively in life, and lead to a greater and fuller development of self;
and that bad deeds accomplish the contrary.
I learned that good always invariably triumphs over evil; that having brains is often better than having
brawn; and that underdogs in all situations of life need to have unlimited patience, resiliency, stubbornness
and unshakeable hope in order to triumph in the end.
I learned to prefer peace to war, cleverness to stupidity, love to hate, sensitivity to stoicism, humility to
pomposity, reconciliation to hostility, harmony to strife, patience to rashness, gregariousness to
misanthropy, creation to annihilation.
Page 79-80

7. Passage #4
Even though I had never been beyond the confines
of Alexandra to know what Johannesburg was
really like, I told them secondhand stories about it.
They believed me completely, and thought me
vastly knowledgeable; I felt superior to the lot of
them.
Page 87

8. Passage #5
“While we stood in line, my mother, in an attempt to allay her doubts about the
contents of the note, asked a man in front of us to read it to her. The man told us that
the note, contrary to what John had said, merely stated that my mother had a problem;
it didn’t explain the nature of the problem, or state the fact that we had twice been to the
superintendent’s office. All in all, the notes were worthless.
Page 117
I would lie to her that I was late because I had to stay behind for choir rehearsals.
Because my mother could’t read, there seemed no way for her to find out the truth.
page 159
With my knowledge of arithmetic, I became the household accountant. I got my
mother to buy a notebook in which I wrote the names of all our customers, and the
amounts they owed. Because many of our customers could not read, I at times felt
tempted to cheat them by overcharging or making them pay for drinks they never
had.
Page 180

9. Passage #6
They, like myself, had grown up in an environment where the value
of education was never emphasized, where the first thing a child
learned was not how to read and write and spell, but how to fight and
steal and rebel; where the money to send children to school was
grossly lacking, for survival was first priority.
Page 123

10. Passage #7
‘Your father didn’t go to school,” she continued, dabbing her puffed eyes to reduce the swelling with a
piece of cloth dipped in warm water, “that’s why he’s doing some of the bad things he’s doing. Things
like drinking, gambling, and neglecting his family. He didn’t learn how to read and write; therefore,
he can’t find a descent job. Lack of any education has narrowly focused his life. He sees nothing
beyond himself. He still thinks in the old, tribal way, and still believes that things should be as easy as
they were back in the old days when he was growing up as a tribal boy in Louis Trichardt. Though he’s
my husband, and your father, he doesn’t see any of that.”
Page 133
If you can read or write, you’ll be better off than those of us who can’t. Take my situation: I can’t find a
job because i don’t have papers, and I can’t get papers because white people mainly want to register people
who can read and write. But I want things to be different for you child. For you and your brothers and
sisters. I want you to go to school, because I believe that an education is the key you need to open up a new
world and a new life for yourself. It is the only key that can do that, and only those who seek it earnestly
and perseveringly will get anywhere in the white man’s world. Education will open doors where none seem
to exist”
Page 133

11. Passage #8
My mother, on one side, illiterate but determined to
have me drink, for better or for worse, from the well
of knowledge. On the other side, my father, he too
illiterate, yet determined to have me drink from the
well of ignorance.
Page 134

12. Passage #9
As we went along some of the streets, boys and girls who shared the
same fears about school as I were making their feelings known in a
variety of ways. They were howling their protests and trying to escape.
A few managed to break loose and make a mad dash for freedom, only
to be recaptured in no time, admonished or whipped, or both, and ordered
to march again.
page 126
As my brother and sister clawed each other over the food, she and I went
over the books.
Page 149
“When I grow up, Mama,” I said stoutly, as I took my books to go do
my homework with a friend who lived in the neighborhood, “I’ll fight for
my rights.”
Page 158

13. Passage #10
“Educating our children is the only way out of
this pit of poverty”
page 176

14. Passage #11
Teachers began forecasting great things for me:
some said I would make a good teacher, others
maintained that I had the brains to become a
doctor. But all these predictions depended upon
one thing-money.

15. Passage #12
There was even talk that Aunt Bushy would have
to leave school upon completing Standard Six,
and look for a factory job, so she could help pay for
Uncle Piet’s schooling.
Page 182

16. Questions!
1. “A man who knows nothing about books but can feed himself and his family, is a million times
better than a man who has read a million books but cannot feed himself and his family”
Johannes’s Dad tells him this. How do you agree or disagree with this?
2. As Johannes gets more educated, what are some differences in his personality, attitude, or behavior?
What are some signs of illiteracy found in the book? Find a quote to prove it.
3. How did exposing education to children hinder or encourage the apartheid?
4. Do you think that Johannes would have been as successful with tribal education? Why or why not?
What would be better or worse if he had a tribal education?
5. “He shunned school, and, instead, grew up to live by the knife. And the same knife he lived by
ended his life”
A strange woman told Johannes her son’s story. Do you think Johannes joined and stayed in school
out of fear or zeal?
6. What are some examples of Johanne’s father’s actions that you think he did because of his
illiteracy? How would it have been different if he was educated? USE QUOTES!