THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE WRITER, Betty Ann Blaine, has invited us all to contribute to the discussion of the "Values and Attitudes" campaign. This is a programme which has good intentions but really is very dubious in its execution. I agree with the writer up to the point except where she states that the source of the "Values and Attitudes" that will be taught should be from the Bible because Jamaica is a Christian country. I was under the impression that Jamaica has freedom of religion.
An attitude, therefore, that one may like to impart to the youth is that people are free to believe and to practise their religion provided it does not infringe on anyone else's right to theirs, and because a person has different values from yours does not mean that he has no values.
To cite a glaring example of different values: The Christian believes in one wife and one wife only and anything else is criminal. Yet, the Mormons and the Muslims are allowed by religion to have more than one wife, but having one wife only is not criminal. I would hotly debate the Christian value of "spare the rod, and spoil the child," as having any value at all. Therefore, a Bible-based approach to teaching values will pit even Christians against Christians.
Any values and attitudes campaign which promotes a dogmatic view of religion and the virtue of one over another, is lacking in value because it promotes division, racism, discrimination and superiority. Of course, within the walls of your own house, you promote what you believe in and teach your children what you believe as truth, as this is your duty. You also teach your children how to behave in a civil manner to other people who do not believe as they do. In the same civil manner you'd behave when your child comes home and says s/he was mistakenly baptised at birth because s/he really is a Rastafarian.
If the government represents the people, then it cannot truly accept the responsibility of leading an exclusive "Values and Attitudes" campaign on the framework of the Bible alone. Let the Bishops, Preachers, Parsons, Reverends, Rabbis, Imams, and other Church leaders I have neglected to mention, do their job.
I concur with the writer though, that any programme that intends to influence character will have no success if it isn't modelled. Character cannot be taught, but is influenced and grows and thrives on its own with reinforcement from a supportive social environment. The idea that we must all think alike and act alike after taking the Values and Attitudes course inevitably will rear rigid, robotic figures who cannot see beyond what the course has taught. One must also realise the effect that the economic reality has on people's attitudes and values. A quantity of loaves and fishes may have an enormous effect on the attitude of the hungry. It's all relative.
I am, etc.,
A.M. ANSARI
stop1998@aol.com
P.O. Box 111302
Nashville, TN
Via Go-Jamaica
