Parental Advisory needed

THE EDITOR: With the recent upsurge of fire breakouts at schools across our country, one has to wonder if they should be labelled as deviant behaviour or simply juvenile delinquency. Whichever branding you choose one fact remains for certain that some other factor may it be person or otherwise should also be held accountable apart from the students who performed these acts of vandalism. And so, the blaming game begins. Many fingers have been pointed in the direction of the school’s administrations and in extension the Ministry of  Education, for their inability and lack of resources to deal with these types of situations.

While some may find justification for their accusations on the basis of the education system being dilapidated, at the end of it all it is a reflection of our societal breakdown rather than the mere failure of the system. In essence, who is really to be blamed or, more correctly put, should be held jointly responsible? Is it the failed education system, the school’s faculty or parents? I think the answer is quite easy to discern. It is rather evident that many parents nowadays play an absentee role when it comes to instilling proper ethical and moral values in their offspring. It is my firm belief that children, regardless of ethnicity and social status, can grow into well-adjusted adults providing that their parents spend time in promoting their emotional and psychological well-being.

It takes a mentality in need of desperate attention, for a teenager of well enough sense to simulate a plan to burn his/her school to ashes. This action alone heightens my point that parents are not spending enough time and learning who their children really are inside. If half an hour for the least was given into having a genuine conversation with your child or simply asking them how their day was, then I can assure you that whatever feelings that had not been vented would come out during that time allowing bottled emotions, which can turn dangerous if left unattended, to expel themselves.

Mind you that this isn’t meant to be any formal bashing of anyone’s parental abilities, but merely an introspection of events that could have been avoided. However, I have neither remorse nor compassion when it comes to parents who hide or choose to ignore their children’s illegal extra-curricular activities and then act stupefied when their children die violently. If a vast percent of the nation’s youth is headed towards a life of crime and violence then what does that say about the foundation of our society and the future of our economy? It says to me that we can no longer neglect the importance of much needed parental control and input in the lives of our nation’s children. Keep in mind the proverb, “You reap what you sow.”

AMY-LEIGH JAGROOP
Chaguanas