This thing called respect

Respect is a lovely word. We are taught to respect our elders and to show respect by many acts such as calling our elders “auntie” and “uncle” and using the titles Mr, Mrs etc.

Of course respect also means giving to those who have contributed their rightful due and paying respect to the dead and the living for the groundwork they have put in place.

But respect also entails rendering to each and everyone his or her rightful due as citizens and ensuring something called equity. It means not privileging those with more “brains” or street wisdom. Or money. It is the sign of a mature society when we see the needs of the frail, the marginalised and those with disabilities placed high on the agenda. But in TT they are not even ON the agenda.

But our society has no respect.

This is evident at the very basic level of education. Where is the respect for those who have dyslexia or who learn differently or who may have either psychological or psychiatric problems? I have tried to no avail to find out the systems that have been put in place to respect the rights of all.

First of all there is the problem of simply accessing information. I have been trying to get some basic information on special education, for example, but have had little joy, even though I have sought help from key figures in the field.

Does the Ministry of Education have a plan to adopt a special education programme within our schools or is it the intention of the ministry to continue the policy of segregation, which leads inevitably to the marginalisation of young people? I guess that is what “bad company” really means.

The dispossessed are kept within the confines of their own cordoned-off schools and allowed to keep company with their like. They may not contaminate the halls that the gifted elite inhabits.

Those who are born with a disability and those who are unable to compete in the brain game have several options. If their parents have the funds they can attend one of the private schools currently catering for their needs. They may also just stay home or keep bad company, or walk the streets, live unproductive lives or just die.

“These people”, as I have heard them called, do not really exist in Trinidad and Tobago so they do not have the right to demand respect.

And has the Catholic Church or any other religious group actually sought to demand respect for the disfranchised who may have autism, Down syndrome, or may simply have a different set of talents? Or do they continue to see them as existing on the fringes of our society and not actually part of it? Ironically, it seems that there are a number of young people who want to teach people with special needs and who have graduated with a degree in special education from UTT , but they simply cannot find jobs in their area of specialisation within State schools.

While the impulse is there to create an equitable society which shows respect for all, our education system is so outdated and out of touch with the realities of our society that these young idealists have ended up in mainstream education teaching large classes and using a curriculum that is not geared to those with educational or developmental needs.

I have yet to discover how many special education teachers are actually working in the field of either remedial or special education. And if those who are so employed, are actually able to function.

How can anyone demand respect for only one portion of any one group? If women were to demand respect they would have to do so for all and without excluding the poor, the unresourced or the disabled. In fact it is only when we recognise that life is not about becoming rich, successful or climbing that ladder and kicking those who are weaker that we become truly human.

And it is at that point that our lives take on meaning and we can demand respect.

The single important educational change throughout the world has been the implementation of what we now call differentiated education, which means the deployment of specially trained teachers to develop the potential of all who enter the system.

And it works. Look at the productive and happy lives of people with disabilities documented in newspaper articles, television shows and throughout the media. If differentiated education works in areas where individuals had previously been ostracised and institutionalised and stigmatised, would it work in our society and help address what is obviously a burgeoning social problem? Would it be possible for the Ministry of Education to adopt a pilot project with a specialised individualised programme that contains both academic and self-developmental help in a community where disadvantaged young men and women had previously been taught to see themselves as worthless? Such a programme would give oneto- one support and foster self-worth.

It would see each person, no matter what their accident of birth, as worthy and demanding of respect.