Restore the principles in the Barbadian society
Principal of Ellerslie Secondary School, Lieutenant Colonel Errol Brathwaite has reaffirmed the importance of restoring certain principles that will guide our children.
The Barbados Advocate spoke to him yesterday on the first day of school after the summer vacation and against the backdrop of the recent incidence of crime in Barbados by young persons he believes that we need to get back to the foundation that it took a village to raise a child.
According to him, “We have to look at this crime issue holistically, we have come away from the principles in our society. Society has changed to the extent that gone are the days that we live as a community and we are moving away from the old adage it takes a village to raise a child. It has to do with guidance and supervision from all elements of society particularly it has to start in the home, parents play a pivotal role, the school, church and every element in society that can give the child that positive moulding and grounding, but we have to work together to the development of our youth.”
He continued, “Also, a lot of parents are not encouraging their children to be involved in the extra curriculum activities which provides for them interesting and exciting activities, these activities help developed your children socially. Young people need to be engaged in positive activities because at adolescence, this is where a child is looking to identify who am I, they are looking to be part of something and if we don’t provide and encourage them to take part in interesting and exciting activities, we see then involved in negative behaviour. They are activities in schools such as Cadets, Red cross, Interschool Christian fellowship etcetera...”
The Principal stated , “I don’t believe young people are angrier than before; they have the tools to publicize this behaviour … Our children have a lot more access to the world, therefore we have to put systems in place to control and explain right from wrong and help them make good decisions. We have to engage students about conflict resolution.”
The principal spoke about the use of cell phones.
“In terms of cell phones there is still a when and where and they are certain rules that still need to be followed, a teacher may use it as a tool for learning, not that the student is on the phone talking in class ….Also as adults we need to show young people how to behave, that they also have good examples ..”
Brathwaite contended that positive young people should be highlighted. “We need to publicize our positive young people, that this needs to be the image to aspire to …My position is that we have a lot of positive young people and it is a joy to work with children and see them develop from one strength to another.
We have a competition called Ellerslie Rising stars and to see those children building confidence and getting praise from other students is great.”
We have past students such as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Professor V Eudine Barriteau, David Ellis of Starcom Network and many others that speak to young people and show them that if you put in the work any dream is possible….” (NB)