27 May 2023

Johannesburg Meet, Greet & Dance to the Beat

On Saturday morning, 27 May 2023, the TDA Fam met up in the City of Gold to meet fellow students and families, in the outdoors under the warm winter sun. Our priority was to provide a welcoming and engaging environment where students and parents could have oodles of fun, be happy and feel safe; because here at TDA, we firmly believe that contented “little” people can achieve amazing things!

Ever aware of the latitude and capacity of our educational offerings, we remain sensitive and responsive to the inherent and most natural human need of our students for purposeful peer engagement, play and social connectivity.

Our proudly digital platform provides a highly competent, well-regulated and accessible source of academic instruction. These credentials are endorsed by the excellent outcomes achieved by our students. However, within this digital, online paradigm, we are ever mindful of the limited opportunities for face-to-face interaction between our students.

(It is an established fact that you cannot pea-shoot, pass a “crib” note or trip up a friend in the front row of the classroom, or even share a scrummy tuna sandwich with someone behind a screen…)

And so on this particularly sunny Saturday, we gathered an 80-something intergenerational “bunch” of curious, shy, enthusiastic youngsters, all sharing a warm willingness to interact with other fellow TDA students. Fuelled with delicious cupcakes and supplemented with pizza offerings, they were organised into circulating groups of 10 – 12 and set up to enjoy the interactive possibilities offered by six “stations” – outdoor yoga on the grass, jewellery-making, curiosity corner, movement and dance, historical adventures, and gratitude / meditation contemplations.

Evident on each face was the enthusiastic, engaged willingness to bridge the social gaps – there were awkward introductions, playful comments, secret glances and the delight of finding common ground with a potential buddy.

Three hours on, as they melted into the “big social pool” of the Italian Club, there were whispered plans “to do this again”…

Although the organisational requirements of such, more regular encounters, remain complex for parents and administrators, the gains are unquestionable… Watch this space!

As an African proverb reminds us:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Let this be a wonderful reminder for both parents and administrators alike, not to neglect the need, fulfilment and upliftment available to us through direct social connectivity.