Something that struck me right on the noggin today was how utterly neglected the school subject of Life Orientation was, despite its incredible importance. Yes, it is true that the subject is one of a select few that all students are required to take – but that is about as much attention as it gets. While passing the subject is required to complete one’s secondary schooling, grades earned in it are not included in any tertiary admission criteria in South Africa. On the contrary – those grades are actually subtracted from one’s final grade point average before tertiary admission is considered!
No wonder learners have little interest in Life Orientation during the FET-phase. It also doesn’t take a genius to figure out why LO is considered “the subject Schools assign to teachers when they don’t know what to do with those teachers”.
School in its entirety should prepare one for adult life, this is true. That being said, no other class in school creates the safe space which allows for the discussion of supra-curricular life questions faced by learners, as LO does. Nowhere else are learners given the sense of security and support to talk about anything they are facing, dealing or struggling with. Life Orientation is the class that helps us discover what it means to be who we are; it teaches us life- and business skills; it fosters both individual and communal wellness; it encourages independent thought; it humanizes both the curriculum and the scary meta-curricular web of the wide world waiting outside.
Life Orientation has the potential to heal, enable, activate and give wings to the most powerful citizens of the world! Why should it not be treated that way?
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