Martin Henry
THE GOOD news is that most of Jamaica's children are reasonably loved and reasonably well cared for. They have longer life expectancy, are better fed, have better access to health care, and are healthier than any previous generation.
They have greater access to education all the way to Ph.D., and can become prime ministers from the depths of rural Jamaica, even if they still have to carry water on their heads as fewer and fewer of them do. And a whole heap of them have cellphones, never mind the suspected dangers to brain health, especially in the young.
These children are not necessarily happier, though. For one thing, Jamaica's children are terrified of being killed in violence. The news and their parents frighten them. Crimes against children make the most emotionally devastating news - and we have all been crying. One dimension of the bad news not to be overlooked, and which Professor Barry Chevannes of Fathers Inc. would be proud of, is the presence of fathers as reasonably responsible parents in many of the news stories.
SPIRITUAL MATTER
Chevannes himself was courageously proclaiming in his own MIND lecture, which unfortunately I missed, that violence is a spiritual matter requiring spiritual solution and speaking of 'evil' and 'conscience', not the usual stuff of the secular academy. But then he is retired to safer [and perhaps greener] pastures.
In the busy transitional period from Patterson to Portia, the GraceKennedy Foundation hosted its 18th annual public lecture, with paediatrician and child development specialist Dr Maureen Samms-Vaughan speaking on 'Children caught in the crossfire'. Professor Elsa Leo-Rhynie, herself a distinguished past GKF lecture presenter, in introducing the lecture, said: "The well-being of children in Jamaica and the Caribbean is being seriously affected by the negative influences that jeopardise their healthy development, thus putting them at risk and threatening the stability of our country and the future of our region."
ATTENTION TO CHILDREN
Part of the legacy of the Patterson administration is the creation of an office of Child Advocate and an agency and commission solely devoted to the development needs of children. Never have children had more attention paid to them and resources devoted to them. But there has to be cause for concern over the trends towards the pathologising of childhood and the separation of the needs and interests of children from those of the wider society. Children, first and foremost, are embedded in families and are not wards of the state. Elsa's 1993 GKF lecture on "The Jamaican family - continuity and change', which I have regularly cited, has been one of the best and I have read them all in print and heard all except one. Where are the programmes to strengthen the family life and community life in which children must live and move and have their being and be formed well or badly for their own adult lives?
I found Dr. Samms-Vaughan's discussion of the 'resiliency response' of children to 'adultification' - the downward extension to children of adult responsibilities - particularly hopeful. Many Jamaican children, not the majority, have to carry adult responsibilities. Most of these adultified children, like children in general, are resilient. They manage to use difficult circumstances in a positive way for personal development.
FACTORS THAT ENGENDER RESILIENCE
Two sets of factors that engender resilience in children have been identified. The external set has to do with the presence of a caring adult, the communication of high expectations, and meaningful participation in social groups. The internal set of factors include: social competence, autonomy, a good sense of self, and a sense of meaning and purpose with goal-setting and optimism.
Now these are matters very much determined by home, Church and community, and by early childhood education in its broadest sense. After reams and reams of data on the problems and difficulties of childhood going right back to the dawn of time, the paediatrician lecturer concluded: "Most of our children are resilient, but the minority, particularly those who have aggression and violent mental health problems as an outcome, wreak havoc in society.
"This lecture," it was early announced, "explores childhood from its historical roots to its current state in Jamaica."
The assessment of the current state of childhood in Jamaica, the meat of the matter supported by a massive flow of data, may have been excessively medical and negative. But, "The evidence is clear that we will not solve the nation's problems without caring for our children through the provision of support for families," the doctor said in her solutions wrap-up.
Martin Henry is a communication specialist.
