Back in the 90's and early 2000's before the internet was easily accessible and before YouTube Math tutorials were available, South African students relied on one man to ensure they passed their maths subject.
This man, who goes by the name of William Smith had students racing back home to watch him assist students with their maths problems, William was extremely popular with students, especially when exams were around the corner.
Last week we posted a picture of William Smith as our Throwback Thursday image on Facebook and the response we received from all our Facebook friends was amazing.
What was even more interesting were the comments of people praising William and how much of a valuable role he played in ensuring that they passed their Maths subject during their school career.
Some people shared how they managed to pass maths because of William.
Whilst others understood his maths lessons way better than their teachers at school.
And we agree with these two comments, William deserves a lot of awards for the great work he contributed to the betterment of students across the country.
Wait, he even used Smarties during his lessons? Quite effective because it clearly worked.
Smith in the past has won the Teacher of the Year Award and was voted 86th in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004. He was also awarded the Impumelelo Gold Award for innovation in 2005.
When we posted the picture a lot of people asked where William Smith is now and if he's even still teaching. Well, in 2015 KZN radio station, East Coast Radio managed to get a hold of William Smith and they found out that William actually now lives in Australia
In an interview with Xolani Gwala in 2015, Xolani had mentioned the issue of pupils in South Africa dismally failing their Maths subjects and how much the country needed William back on our TV screens teaching the youth, to which William jokingly replied that he was now way too old and too forgetful to teach.
"No, No, No, you know what, I've gotten too old and too wrinkled and I've started to become forgetful and at that stage in one's life you've got to bail out and leave it to younger people like you." (referring to Xolani)
William also mentioned that he had a lot of fun teaching students whilst he was on the other side of the screen and surprisingly enough, William also told Xolani that when his channel was launched across Africa, they would get a hundred million views a day. Amazing!
William followed his children, who also now live in Australia as he felt he was getting lonely living alone in South Africa.
"When your family goes, you kind of get lonely when you're on your own, you leave Africa but Africa will never leave you." Said William Smith.
Thank you for the lessons Mr. Smith.
Main Image: Facebook