Jones: Use culture to turn around negative young people
Certain cultural offerings can be used to help turn around young persons who are getting involved in negative behaviour, even at the level of the school, as witnessed recently with a number of violent stabbing incidents.
Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones, made the suggestion during continued debate of the Estimates on Friday afternoon, as he made his contribution under the heading of Culture.
“We have to use a new value clarification process within the whole cultural framework of Barbados, to get to the hearts and minds of these young people who somehow no longer see blood as important to life, but see the spilling of blood as though it is some hobby. So the culture as I would say, needs to find a basis to give meaning to young people, to give them a sense of hope,” Jones remarked.
“In the school system that I have had the opportunity to be in charge of for a few years, I have seen young men that have started out hostile. Today, they are leaders in our schools. They are playing music, they are heavily involved in sports, not deviant. You just have to hold them at the right time and lead them from that position of despair, that position of hopelessness, into new light and give them new horizons for which they can journey,” he added.
“So I am not going to, looking at culture overall, say that you are so bad that you can’t become good. We all came through historical Barbados and there were bad boys in our communities. There were murders in our community, there was desecration of the female flesh through rape in our communities, there were persons who got involved in bestiality in our communities. This was part of the evolving process in our communities, not the best part of ourselves … and therefore, we have an opportunity now, seeing the re-emergence of some of the more negative sides of our culture, to now speak with authority; to use music, dance, drama and writing to get into the minds of our young people,” Jones commented. (RSM)