Violence in nation’s schools

THE EDITOR: I must admit, I was truly astonished to hear the Honourable Minister of Education, simplistic analysis of the root cause of rising violence in schools in Trinidad and Tobago. Kindly indulge me so I may take a stab at this phenomenon. (No pun intended).

Let us think of the root cause as a great melting pot and these are some of the ingredients:
* Destruction of the family unit where basic values morals and ethics are taught. There are thousands of daddies but very few fathers.
* Uncensored access to the information super highway, where, web sites from cannibalism to how to make a nuclear bomb can be found with the click of a mouse.
* Thousand of video games whose sole objective is to stab, shoot, kick, cuff or blow apart some type of opponent. Thus honing their communications skills.
* Thousands of movies, videos and television shows whose basic storyline is to stab, shoot, kick, cuff or blow apart some type of opponent. Even the cartoons.
* Thousands of advertisement that says, to be cool or be somebody, you must drink this beer or smoke this cigarette or wear these shoes.
* Conflicting messages from leaders and adults in society, for example parliamentarians behaving like children and calypsonian urging their bandit friend to commit more crime.
* A daily regiment of drugs, violence and sex in ninety percent of the music they hear.
* Targets for deviant adults for example drug pushers or some maxi taxi drivers.
* Failing education system with frustrated teachers and outdated curriculum.
* An overall sense of lawlessness in society. For example our total disregard for traffic and civil laws.
* A general lack of spirituality in their lives.

Toss these ingredients and more into the pot and feed it to a highly vulnerable group of human beings, making the transition from dependant child to independent adult. A journey fraught with fear, uncertainty and inexperience and the out come is not surprising. Clearly, it is not as simple as Mrs. Manning would have us believe. Until society, deals with these fundamentals in a holistic manner, deviant behaviour among our young people will continue to rise. Think about it my people.

EUGENE SYLVESTER
Trincity