By Betty Ann Blaine, ContributorALTHOUGH WE keep mouthing the words that they are our most precious resource, and that they represent our future, our children remain the most endangered species in our country today. We don't listen to them, value them, nor do we respect them. They have no voice, and no idea of their rights or even that they have rights. They are abused, abandoned, neglected, ignored and even ridiculed. More worrying is that they don't know who they are and where they are going.
As adults of this country we should be absolutely ashamed at the legacy we have left our children. My own sense of shame is so acute, that every time I speak to groups of children, the first thing I do, is to apologise for the kind of society we have created for them. And make no mistake about it, we are responsible, particularly those of us who benefited from a better Jamaica, and at the very least, were products of a good educational system.
NATURAL LAW OF EVOLUTION
Our society defies the natural law of evolution which says that our children should be better off than we are. Not only are the lives of a large proportion of our children worse off than their parents, but many have not even been able to live out their normal lifespan because of the inability of parents, communities and the state to protect them from violent crime. It is certainly not a natural part of life for children to die before their parents, but those in certain communities in our country would not know that.
If you really want to know how much trouble our country is in, simply take a look at the state of our children, particularly those that live in our poor communities. My own work involves running programmes for children ages four to 15 in two inner-city communities. Their lives represent everything that is wrong in Jamaica, and graphically paints a dismal picture of the future.
READ AT THE PRESCRIBED READING LEVEL
With the exception of perhaps two or three, none of the 40 or so children that we see every day are able to read at the prescribed reading level. In fact, some as old as nine and 10 are not able to read at all. The saddest feeling overcame me when I attempted to prepare the attendance register the first week of school.
Several six and seven-year-olds could not even spell their first names, and when asked what their names were, gave us their nicknames instead. We quickly realised that the question to ask was what was their school name. Of course, almost none of them knew what we meant by their surname and few could spell them.
Somebody has to explain to me how 10 and 12-year-olds, having started basic school at four years and attend school every day, are unable to read the simplest sentence, cannot spell three-letter words and can barely write. This is a national disgrace, and yet I don't know that teachers' groups, parents or the general public are talking about it.
As you would expect, the children suffer from very low levels of self-esteem and self-confidence, which in turn are manifested in a high degree of aggressive and anti-social behaviour. So serious is this problem that our team made a deliberate and calculated decision to temporarily suspend the academic instruction, until we had dedicated time to a re-socialisation programme based on love and the inculcation of positive values and attitudes.
It continues to be an uphill battle. Basic values such as respect and honesty are anathema to the children. But it gets worse. The most horrendous form of peer cruelty is considered the norm by the children. Our volunteer staff constantly scolds children about kicking each other in the most violent manner.
SEE NOTHING WRONG
They see nothing wrong with it. Only recently we initiated a discussion with the children about cruelty to animals. The idea of not stoning dogs evoked a huge laughter from the group. In fact, the laughter was even louder when one child described how he and his friends stone "mad" people on a regular basis.
None of us are surprised. The levels of verbal and physical abuse meted out to these children every day is unspeakable. I don't believe that there is one child among the 40 or so, who doesn't have a scar of some kind from beatings at the hands of their mothers, fathers of their peers. The tragedy is that no one is held criminally accountable.
As far as I am concerned, the attitude and inertia from the top can only reinforce the general disregard and lack of urgency about the state of our children. Legislation that would address some very basic aspects of children's rights and services take years to draft, let alone to be enacted.
GIFTED AND
TALENTED CHILDREN
You look around this country and you can count on one hand the facilities of any kind, whether educational or recreational that are specifically designed for children. Programmes for gifted and talented children are virtually non-existent, and droves of young people leave our shores every day to seek opportunities in other countries.
When asked a question about how he came to be the kind of man he is, Nelson Mandela immediately reflected on his life as a child. "It was those very first years that determined how the many full years of my long life have been lived. Whenever I take a moment to look back, I feel an immense sense of gratitude to my father and mother, and to all the people who raised me when I was just a boy and formed me into the man I am today."
Jamaica needs a wake-up call about the state of our children. What obtains now is nothing short of abominable.
Betty Ann Blaine is an historian, a member of the Victorious Movement of Jesus in Jamaica and founder of Youth Opportunities Unlimited.
E-mail: bab2609@hotmail.com .
