What will you improve during your life?

THE EDITOR: For 2004, if I could, I would fix this question above every school blackboard: “What will you invent, what will you improve during your life?” Some may say: cure for cancer, hovercraft lawnmower, doll to laugh and cry with me, parenting, magnetic clipboard, better traffic lights, better clothes pins, etc. The question is not for the children alone but for the teachers as well; it will remind them to teach in such a way that the children will develop the ability to observe, think and master knowledge. They will learn to study on their own, be more inventive and imaginative, see more sense in studying and learning, find more pleasure in knowledge.

Later, on leaving school, they will carry with them the instinct to explore, improve and develop for both themselves and the nation in ways not thought of before. ‘Brains’ is not just remembering what teacher taught. The Japanese used their brains differently. When they jumped into the strange industrial world, they bought a car. They copied it faithfully. But they didn’t stop there; they improved on it. They then swamped USA with their smaller better cars using less gas. Similarly, Sony and others in Japan widened horizons in electronics. Later, when scared USA sought reasons for Japan’s astonishing economic development that threatened to leave USA far behind, they got the answer: education. USA learned from it. Small Singapore, also, doesn’t have our natural resources but they are now ‘first world.’ We want to get there.

Such a way of teaching is also a cure for dropout-itis. A good example of this cure is the teacher who, using a pack of cards, taught ‘difficult’ calculus to a class of ghetto youths who were ready to drop out - they stayed and passed. Clearly, teaching and learning become more interesting. The result: more success, less boredom, a more inventive, developing country. For 2004, I would also, if I could, order a compulsory oral English test once or twice a year in every class. In numerous foreign countries students learn to speak fluent English at school. In TT, by all reports, English is not spoken, even by teachers, in most schools - and it is not the language of most homes. I am not saying people should not speak Creole, which is our first language. But they should learn English, not only because it is the official language of the country but also because it is the language of our studies and the international language of the world. Teach Spanish, Hindi and whatever but, for us individually and for the nation, English is the language most crucial to our education and our careers.

Mr Fayed Ali is one of our most successful mathematics teachers. All his students pass; most with distinction. He speaks for all maths teachers when he points out that it is weakness in English that makes maths difficult. So maths and English are the two most important academic subjects, but English is clearly the more important. If they do not learn it in school, where will they? “What will you invent or improve during your life?” It will bring you money, if you want it, and/or great satisfaction.

VAN STEWART
Diego Martin