Children return to us what we give them

THE EDITOR: A young woman left her sons at home and went to work. She put the children in school as early as she could and dropped them off at her aunt’s house after school. When she picked them up they were half asleep. They had been playing outside all evening or watching TV because Tanty had to cook, clean and iron for herself and for her employees. She couldn’t have children under foot. They grew up and couldn’t read but were sent to secondary school where their A’ level graduate teacher read notes from the textbook every day and sent them outside for misbehaving. They started fights at recess for fun and picked on skinny, funny looking students. They were suspended again and again and they stopped going. Maybe somebody expelled them. They have guns now and still pick on people who look smaller, skinny or lame. They too have sons with girls who are looking for work.

Laventille, Belmont, Morvant... had food, had shelter, had URP, have CEPEP, but never had genuine attention, love and guidance. They increased in numbers like children who provide Mama with more money from social welfare; they increased and provided essential votes. But there has never been a mother to sit with them in the afternoon to educate them. There has never been a mother to set a dream in their hearts. There has been no teacher in their schools to capture their attention because nobody ever thought they could learn. Look at what we have done with our sons. We built with our shiniest dreams a towering National Library, furnished and polished and stacked it and opened its doors. Whose primary school daughter is that making out over thereunder the Religious Section? Whose son is that slipping out with three bags, none his own; whose child broke this computer and that one and this one? What will be our sign of development come 2020 — our buildings?

And Tobago’s brand new multi storey, multi-everything secondary schools stand in the hearts of our villages where we throw more children and child teachers fresh out of A’ levels... while we yet cut ribbons and turn sods our children are whores on Store Bay who will never own homes and properties and can find no jobs; where incest couldn’t possibly  exist never mind what the children are whispering or the strange games they are playing with their dollies... No jobs for those who have some qualifications today? What of those we have swooped up and dumped in our beautiful new schools who cannot read; who will have no teachers? What kind of Tobago will we have in five years, in three, in two?

As a nation we continue to abuse, abandon and disillusion our youth. Everything that involves the development of our children must be our priority if we really hope to reduce crime. They just return to us what they’ve been given. What if we did right by our nation’s children one day? What if every strategic planning meeting that the government will have over the next few years began with a vision that revolves around our children. What if we stopped talking politics and did our best to raise and to provide for healthy, balanced children. Oh for a system of education where we can truly educate our sons.

ANN NATASHA SECOND
Carnbee, Tobago