Pentecost and Education

Over the years we have allowed our primary schools on the “urban and rural fringes” to decline in performance as stated by Dr Lennon Bernard at a symposium on education hosted by CREDI (Cathoilc Religious Education Development Institute) some weeks ago, in Diego Martin.

The noted educator also spoke of the difference between “equity” and “equality” in education: there may be equality in education but that does not translate into equity, which is only arrived at knowing all the variables that effect a child’s learning and overcoming the challenges that stand in the way of his/her moving forward. He also called for “affirmative action” regarding schools on the rural and urban fringes.

One of the reasons we have gotten where we are in Catholic education is because of bad spirituality. For too many, the spiritual life is about plenty prayers but little action: my spiritual life is what I have with Jesus, the working of the Holy Spirit in my life, my personal well-being and enlightenment. This is more New Age than Christianity.

The working of the Spirit in our lives may have an internal origin but it always impels us out: “Go” as the priest says at the end of Mass. But that is exactly where we fail: we go out without keeping the messianic prophecies in mind which Jesus uttered when he read the Isaian scroll in the temple in Nazara.

These words rooted in justice were the manifesto of Jesus’ public ministry. It has been summarised under the influence of liberation theology as the Church’s “preferential option for the poor”. Yet, the poor are the ones who suffer the most when our primary schools decline in performance.

Do we make this connection when we celebrate Pentecost, a rather grand event in many parishes? If we are truly under the Spirit why are many of our primary schools marked by so much absenteeism, unpunctuality and under-performance? Not to mention so many parents’ wanton disregard of the children’s education and physical abuse of teachers, and the minimal role played by the wider community, including the business community.

The CREDI project on Catholic primary schools in east Port-of-Spain is long overdue but a welcome change in the right direction. The road will be long and bumpy but we know it will bear fruit.

In today’s Gospel we are told “we hear them preaching in their own language about the marvels of God.” This is where the CREDI project is heading. Educators must enable children “to speak in their own language about the marvels of Catholic education” in their own language about the marvels of Catholic education” in their lives. The Greek word used, dialectos, connotes more “dialect”.

Catholic education must know the “dialect” spoken by each child — social geography, economic status, learning ability, personal health, lingo and religious background. This is not an easy task but will entail a revamping of our educational approach.

Staying the course, however, would be an act of restitution on our part and a concrete gesture of mercy toward sectors of children who are left behind in the race for education.