A Guy's View: We sowed the wind

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

GALATIANS 6: 7 (KJV). 

 

There has been a lot of talk about violence in our school system. A recent incident has turned the spotlight on the subject of an upsurge in violent attacks on teachers by students. This is an unsettling development, but no person who had a hand in the creation of the environment which produces this activity should now complain about what they have created.

 

Leaked information suggests that this latest incident may not be the classical student on teacher violence, so I am not dealing with that event. What is addressed here is the general deviant behaviour which is a growing problem in our school system. 

 

We have relentlessly pursued the Americanisation of our education system. It is common knowledge around the world that American public schools are war zones. This fact is the driving force behind American parents who can afford it, sending their children to private schools. No one who has studied any education related activity in the USA can claim not to be aware of what that country’s public school system is like. Cud lord, how could you see what that system has produced, introduce that system in our country, and expect a different result? 

 

Barbados had a reputation for an excellent education system, but it was too traditional for some who had the power of influence, in some cases, and in other cases, the power to actually directly effect change. They destroyed what we had on the altar of their formal training, totally disconnected from our cultural values and practices. We are now reaping the results.

 

Corporal punishment was deemed old fashioned and reminiscent of slavery. Some among us know what buttons to push in order to get the reaction they want, and talk about slavery and poverty, often quite out of context, are two reliable whipping boys that are easy to find. One can always raise a chorus of objection by invoking the poor black man and certain other emotional issues.

 

No justification could be found for killing single sex schools without revealing the true intention for such a move, so it was just killed. And although everyone knows that it was the wrong thing to do, this is one dead that cannot be resurrected.

 

The Common Entrance Examination, which was important when there were more students than places, now has no such relevance, but it has proved to be the most effective means of maintaining our class divisions. Although basic logic shows it up as very wrong for us – if we do not want the deteriorating society that now confronts us – it must remain.

 

To cut to the chase, we have sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind. All the complaining will not change anything, because we have what those who matter really want. Fasten your seatbelt and hold on for the ride. Worse is yet to come.

 

Occasionally, a report of an out of control parent who goes to a school and causes a disturbance raises the ire of some among us. We hear of how stupid such people are and how they should be punished. Nobody stops to look at these unsuitable parents. Where did they go to school? What was their scholastic achievement? I am willing to bet money, although I am not usually a betting man, that these parents are the product of the herding system which we see every year as those students who do not perform at an acceptable level during the Common Entrance Examination are all lumped together with persons of like performance.

 

We have chosen to pass judgment on the lives of people at the tender age of eleven years. At this age, we label the majority of our children as non-performers and incompetent. Those with this unfortunate categorization are forced to fight against all odds to emerge from among this pack in order to attain the standards that are expected of the high performers.

 

That many of them have been able to achieve at a high level is evidence that they were wrongly classified as under achievers in the first place. But, by the same token, it is nothing less than expected that many of these persons fall into the ranks of the criminal element and otherwise social misfits. We groom them for this role.

 

A closer examination would show that our young people are not stupid. No child who is not specially handicapped in some way can be a failure at eleven years old, academically or otherwise. People learn in different ways. This is not true only of children. If a teacher or instructor is unable to find out how to make information interesting for a student, that does not necessarily mean that the student is less capable than another student, or even his instructor. It simply means that the instructor is not reaching the student. 

 

It may be difficult to reach every student in a class with the same means of delivery. It may also be difficult for a teacher to find what works for one student out of a class of thirty. We may need a system overhaul, for that one student who is not keeping up still has a right to be taught in a way that allows him to reach his full potential.

 

We cannot just hoard children in schools until they have reached the age of legal release. Every day in school should be one of enlightenment for students. This will not happen if children believe that they cannot learn because of what has been said to them and about them.

 

The system may be using teachers as prison guards, to hold the majority of our children in check until they reach the set age of release. In these circumstances, it should not be surprising that there will be acts of violence – student on student and student on teacher. Inevitably, in an effort to maintain control, they will also be teacher on student violence. 

 

While we continue to look for plasters to cover current wounds, we neglect to look for the root of the problem and seek to address it there. Our system of education did not come down from heaven, or up from hell. We created it as we want it. If it is hellish, we created this hell.