Schools and character

All attempts – environmental education, rubbish-bins and law enforcement – should be quickly put in place now for sustainable cleanliness after next April. All sanitation and environmental agencies should be held to strict account. Rubbish and lawlessness are strongly related.

Meanwhile we wish Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan well in his warrior-like drive to have efficiency and courtesy in the offices under his charge. The way this country is heading, it is high time to take the bull by its horns – rock some boats too. Many have grown hoarse complaining about the reckless, unmannerly habits of drivers. Pedestrians too. Last Wednesday, I saw a student dangerously rushing across the busy road from behind a parked maxitaxi, giggling with a cell-phone stuck in her ear. It seemed a miracle she was not crushed. Rubbish and bad road manners help tell you what the character of this society is.

Now cleanliness and road manners may not be country-shaking as FATCA, bank charges, poisoned water or the murder rate. But they are measures of our “development.” Do you know when the country’s GDP was significantly increasing, especially during the eighties, the overall crime rate was also increasing – suggesting that the country’s economy may not be necessarily related to our bad habits.

Part of my very early years were spent in mango-rich Quarry Road, off the Santa-Cruz Old Road, San Juan hill. Gravelled Quarry Road was largely poor then but quite neighbourly and crime-free. And by the way, of the hundred or so homes there, only three were occupied by persons of East Indian descent. The rest were all of African descent. From here I saw how people can be poor and still not get into crime. Other conditions combine and instigate. With two very young boys, my single mother struggled with poverty. We lived in a one-room shack way up onto the mountain side. No squatting, but at “pepper-corn” rent. But that for now is another story. When I attended San Juan RC School, students were drilled into road safety. Every morning, after our nails, shoes, clothes and hair were checked, we got into road safety – repeating and demonstrating: “Before crossing, look left, right, and left a gain – then cross.” How many children or even adults today do you see “looking left, right, and left again before crossing?” A lot of character-building started, or at least developed, at school - and by good teachers. That is why in 2007, with required data and analyses, I proposed to government, among other things, a centre for road safety education and policy.

Further on, when I later taught in primary school, teachers (in rotation) were put in charge of “houses” each comprising 30-40 students from all classes and supervised by a teacher - to pick up strewn papers, etc, around and inside the school.

Each “house” had a distinct name, such as “roses,” “violets,” etc. There were five “houses.” After school was dismissed, the Monday “house” would go into duty, then Tuesday “house,”etc.

Collective duty and responsibility became part of the school’s sanitation culture. Times and things have changed today. Collective responsibility, in a lot of ways, has gone through the money window.

Why? So too is responsibility for the choices people make. All of this leaving us to wonder if the school curriculum is really teaching children about what good living and a healthy life are all about – beyond cramming for exams. In other words, exams good, but what about character too?