#BTColumn – Saving our schools

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

In modern post-industrial societies, most of us are socialised by a number of agencies that, for better or worse, form our character and determine what we become. It is said that ‘a man’s character is his destiny’. Sociologists and common sense perception tell us that invariably those agencies are the home, the church or mosque or temple and the school or formal education. Another agency is the diverse influences that flow from the wider society, our informal or non-formal education. Remember the old adage that ‘more values are caught than taught’. Then there are also certain genetically determined factors that fashion who we are. Genetic predispositions are, for the most part, beyond our control.

No one is guaranteed a safe and caring home or good parents. In today’s world, broken family structure and dysfunctions are, for many, a reality. Someone once said that the greatest gift that a child can be given is having two parents who love each other and, by extension, their offspring. Problems do begin in the home, but parental blame often assumes that parents themselves have the values to be passed on to children. A parent was summoned to a school on complaint that her son was perpetually swearing on the compound. Asked to explain the boy’s behaviour, the mother herself broke into expletives telling the principal the number of times she had spoken to the ‘so and so’ boy to stop ‘so and so’ cursing and he wouldn’t ‘so and so’ stop at all. This is not simply a social class matter. Well-to-do parents often spoil their offspring rotten.

We often lament the efficacy of the Church in socialising the youth. How many times have we heard the lament that children no longer attend Sunday School, which used to be a key agent in the moral armament of youth at an early age? But no one can force anyone to attend church or send their children to church. Church-going is a purely voluntary activity. I once taught a student at Harrison College who admitted that he was not baptised. When I asked how come, he stated that his parents were both atheists and that while his birth was registered, he had never been baptised into the Christian or any other faith. I don’t know that the Christian Church can be blamed for the state of Barbadian society, although it can be indicted for being caught up in its own pecuniary materialism, boisterous religious entertainment and spiritual superficiality.

Then there is education – formal and informal. When things go wrong in Barbados, it is often said that we need an education programme of one kind or another. The assumption often is that education or formal schooling works for all. Nothing could be further from the truth. Invariably, what they seek is a change in behaviour or values, but regretfully much of formal schooling today is pitched at the cognitive rather than at the affective level. Truth be told, schools have long retreated from their socialising mission, or at least they no longer do so with the cogency they once did.

Cognition itself does not make for better conduct. As the late Kathleen Drayton used to tell her Dip. Ed class, ‘mind’ or the moral intuition is not commensurate with ‘intellect’. One can have a very fine intellect and a very poor mind. The world is full of what Dame Patricia Symmonds used to call ‘clever devils’.

Over the last three decades, formal schooling has become increasingly concerned with certification or credentialism, paper qualification for jobs, preferably top, high-paying, high-profile jobs. It hardly seems to matter that in some cases the standards were being progressively lowered, as we got caught up in what the American A Nation at Risk report called ‘a rising tide of mediocrity.’

Concerned with Eleven Plus marks and desired school placement for the ‘gifted and bright’, with CSEC results and CAPE Scholarships and Exhibitions, we lost track of the real goals of formal schooling. In fact, the Scholarship and Exhibition money seemed to matter more than the virtues of true scholarship.

Another factor affecting Barbadian schools over the past two decades is the deteriorating wider culture in which nearly all had to function. Gladstone Holder used to quote Colm Brogan’s notion that, qualitatively, school systems hardly ever function above the cultural environment in which they operate. It should not surprise us that the violence in the wider Barbados is being replicated in our schools. Indeed, the two are now intricately connected. A priest recently stated that the criminal element was recruiting schoolboys into its employ.

The present goings-on in many of our schools are a reflection of Barbados’ declining culture that is pejoratively affecting all of us. Our values, attitudes and sensibilities have atrophied. The pervasive ZR culture and other influences have adversely affected our children’s behaviours in and out of the classroom. Many teachers are at their wits’ end in a profession that is increasingly hard put to co-opt and retain the kinds of intellects and minds needed to achieve the lofty educational goals we say we want.

In recent times, some heart-wrenching stories have emerged concerning the conduct of some of our school-age children. One such involved gambling on a school corridor that led to a fatal stabbing. Recently, the mother of a twelve-year-old girl requested protection from the Police and the Ministry of Education after her daughter was “beaten and stripped naked” by a group of teenage girls while attending a social function at a secondary school. On Friday January 13, there was an altercation between two 15-year-old boys. One student received stab injuries to the back, face and shoulders. A report on the incident stated that where the stabbing occurred “blood soaked tissue and rags were observed on a chair.” If these circumstances reflect the state of our school culture, how are so-called ‘Academies of Excellence’ going to emerge from any proposed educational reform?

With all this mayhem in some of our schools, the Barbados Ministry of Education is concerning itself with ‘A National Grooming Policy’, including inexplicable issues of ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender neutrality.’ With a fatal stabbing, a beating and stripping naked of a 12-year-old girl and three stab wounds to a 15-year-old boy, one might think that grooming, gender identification and something called ‘gender neutrality’ would be the last of the Ministry’s concerns.

Is the problem with our school children the fact that they are not sure of their gender or that the school, like the society, is not capable of establishing a set of core behavioural norms? One would think that the teaching and learning environment would be a prime issue. After all, that is what school is built to achieve.

If things are as bad as they might appear, the question is how damaged are our school cultures? In this environment, are students truly receptive to qualitative learning and are teachers displaying the capacity and willingness to teach and teach well? Since the controversial IDB survey, the Ministry Of Education seems to be progressively losing its central focus. Or are all the problems in schools and society just too much for all of us?

Ralph Jemmott is a retired educator and regular contributor on social issues.