Life of serving pupils
[caption id="attachment_36629" align="alignright" width="405"] LOVE FOR YOUTH: Sanctor Primary School teacher Maurita Peterson, who is retiring after 41 years of educating young minds, with her Grade 4 class. Picture: JUDY DE VEGA[/caption]
AFTER more than four decades as a Port Elizabeth teacher, Maurita Peterson, 62, bids her classroom, its blackboard and the laughter of primary school children on the playground farewell.
Peterson, of Heath Park, started her teaching career as a vibrant 21-year-old at a small church school in Bethelsdorp in 1973, and in 1975, moved to Sanctor Primary School from which she will retire this month.
Reflecting on the 41 years of serving her community, she said: "I have experienced all the sweet and sour of education.
"It was not easy, but it was worth it."
Peterson started her career teaching Grades 5 to 7 needlework, physical education, mathematics, geography, history, English and Afrikaans.
She now retires as a top mathematics and English teacher who taught all her pupils the importance of reading.
"The best satisfaction one gets from being a teacher is to see your students prosper.
"For me it is so heart-warming to know that one of our community's best medical doctors, Peter Scharneck, went through my hands."
From being a teacher with only a junior certificate, as it was called in the 1970s, Peterson furthered her studies and graduated specialising in school management.
"Physical education remained my favourite subject over the years, however. Staying active was what kept me young. It is also physical education that led to my interest in gymnastics and gymnaestrada.
"In 1994 some of our [pupils] took part in a gymnaestrada at the old University of Port Elizabeth [UPE], now NMMU [Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University], where they qualified to participate in Germany in 1995. I accompanied them and it was definitely one of the biggest highlights of my career."
While the young-at-heart Peterson plans to travel the world after retiring, she hopes the pupils she leaves behind will achieve their dreams.
"Our kids need motivation and love. If I were to leave a legacy, it would be in line with one of Nelson Mandela's philosophies: No child should be allowed to go astray in the education system."- Alvené du Plessis
