Michael Franklin, Contributor
Children often act out the anti-social behaviours seen around them as in this fight between a bus conductor (left) and a man from a community along the Mandela Highway, St. Catherine. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
ADVICE IS cheap, and the new Prime Minister has had loads of it from influential big shots many of whom have had their turn to govern and to fail. At some point, advice overload will set in, and the Prime Minister will close her ears for exhaustion; it's only human.
Presumably, after nearly a quarter century in politics, she will have already been thoroughly schooled in the art of considering all points and making decisions in the best interest of our country without regard for political favours. Or do we expect too much? She must be concerned that there is an almost universal perception that many of her
colleagues in and out of Parliament are vindictive, corrupt and/or incompetent. The persons in Gordon House are seen as arrogant, unresponsive to the people, and in complete denial of its failures, and the Prime Minister has been a part of that scenario. She has her work cut out for her. Still, I want to add my two cents as it relates to the education of our children.
ENGENDER VISION
Education must not only confront a country's social ills but it must also engender vision, creativity, and the values needed to propel Jamaica into an era of dignity, peace, and prosperity. Of course this is easier said than done, for it is not particularly difficult to see the current cheapening and destruction of the personalities and minds of our children.
Acute levels of deception and dishonesty from all sectors have thrust many Jamaican youth into comfortable mediocrity, hopelessness, wrenching indiscipline, and destructive irrational behaviour. Children act out when there is no guidance from their elders or when they view their elders as hypocrites. And, our Jamaican children are acting out with a vengeance!
The biggest of the big lies is that Jamaican children are being educated. Throughout the length and breadth of the country, Jamaican children do not know what it means to be Jamaican; I doubt our illustrious leaders know either. Ask any Jamaican child the question and you will be told about ackees, dancehall music, patois, and 'blackness'. We are more than the sum of our parts, much more. What are those unique qualities, beliefs, and values that define us as a people? Our survival as a people depends on how we identify ourselves as a people and pass on that understanding to future generations. We have shown little to no responsibility for children now or the millions yet to be born who will call themselves Jamaican.
A collateral but equally important matter is ethnic identity. Most of us are African or African in part, yet we know
little about Africa. In this milieu, false notions of what is truly African abound. One example of this is a belief that African masculinity by nature is sexually profligate. One former prime minister may have concurred: "nuff gaal" for every man seems to have been a policy goal of his administration, and that has bred, pardon the pun, consciences in Jamaican men free from the responsibilities of loving and caring for the children they produce. This irresponsibility in child rearing is reflective of the excruciating and debilitating multiple sort of indiscipline evident in Jamaicans of all social and economic classes.
Corruption is one form of indiscipline. Another kind of indiscipline is the unwillingness of the justice system and the police to do right by ordinary Jamaicans, and all of us understand why this is so, even if we dare not publicly state our reasons out of fear and there is a lot of fear in Jamaica.
If there is one good thing for which posterity will credit that former prime minister, it is that, under his self-congratulatory administration, "all the poisons that lurk in the mud" have been hung out and are still oozing profusely for all of us to see. It could turn out to be a blessing in disguise if we choose to face those problems squarely and correct them. I shudder to think of the converse.
The lack of identity is not all about Jamaicanness or Africa. Jamaica has not yet come to terms with its slave past. Yes, countless Jamaican men still behave as if they were breeding for slave markets in Cartagena or New Orleans. I contend that many Jamaican men are still trying to prove they are men, long after abolition, but on slave terms. Many still believe that poor work habits, rebellion, resistance to authority, anancyism, samfiemanism, and bravado feigned or not are behaviours that bolster their manhood, as does an extreme dependency on physical attributes. While this latter characteristic may give us an edge in sports, this same aggression has tragic consequences in post-modern society, and Jamaicans must make the transition to cooperation, empathy, and hard work or die.
FAMILY SHOULD BE CENTRAL
That is where our school system comes into play. All Jamaican children must be socialised to understand who they are and what is expected of them. Cooperation, empathy, and hard work are among the values we should instil in them. Furthermore, we must use the school system to build the family. The family should be the centre of social organisation in Jamaica, not the dons and certainly not those confounded politicians supporting the dons.
Consequently, all Jamaican children should be exposed to parenting classes (and civics) to open their minds and hearts to the truth about our condition as a people and how we can change that awful reality. Give our children options not lies. Parenting classes will contribute more to personal and national development than, say, physics classes taught very often by persons with barely knowledge of the subject matter. In other words, teaching physics in some environments is an inefficient
and ineffective use of scarce resources. Instead, use more of our assets to engineer critical, long-term behavioural changes and character development.
There are other important
variables to look at as well; hopefully, good common sense will always trump greedy political stupidity. But maybe this is the illogical assertion of another silly Jamaican underdog who believes that priority should be given to our children's future rather than, say, to the illegal funnelling of public money into political campaigns or the pockets of crooked political cronies.
It is time to stop the lies, to educate our children, to educate them by example and deeds not empty words, and to foster productive, well-adjusted citizens. If our Prime Minister were to achieve this one result alone she would have the eternal love and undying affection from a grateful Jamaica.
Michael Franklin is a Kingston-based educator.
