Durban - As far as feisty Durban Girls’ High teaching stalwart Joy Swift is concerned, things haven’t changed much in her many years at the school.
The accounting teacher did, however, start hearing more isiZulu, which she understood having been born and bred on a farm at Highflats, near Ixopo.
“Some girls remarked in isiZulu that I was taking a long time to climb the stairs because I smoked.”
She said they were shocked as she turned around and replied to them in fluent isiZulu.
No matter the political changes, the atmosphere in her classes has remained constant over the 50 years she has been teaching, mostly at the 135-year-old school.
“They try their luck but they don’t get very far...
“You set boundaries for the youngsters and they remain within them. So I don’t see change. Maybe it’s because I’m fierce. There’s a consequence if they break them. I am very consistent. If I make a threat, I’ll carry it out. I don’t just say it to frighten them.”
Swift said her education started at the age of 3. “I had older siblings who taught me when they came home from school.”
Accountancy has been her subject and she is proud of the school’s results. “One year we got the best results in South Africa, between 78% and 80% average. This year in trials we just missed 79%.”
Her pupils “want tough love. It brings results”.
Amusing moments at Girls’ High, over the years, include when she discovered a bat on her skirt while fixing a curtain on a third-floor classroom – she ripped it off and fled downstairs in a petticoat; salvaging false teeth from a toilet after a fellow teacher suffered an attack of nausea; and having to be pulled across the swimming pool by another teacher during a fund-raising gala.
“I can’t swim. But I raised the most money.”
Apart from her first teaching post at Estcourt High, Swift has always taught at girls’ only schools – Grosvenor Girls’ and Mowat Park – and believes in single-sex schooling.
“It allows boys and girls to shine with their particular characteristics and personalities and things like that. I would teach boys differently from girls.
“I love to try and prepare children for life and in life. One of the main things is the job you are going to get. They can’t all go to varsity. There is lots of opportunity for bookkeepers.”