Food For Thought.

Today's "Down to Brass Tacks" had an interesting discussion about discipline in schools. Peter Wickham, who moderated, raised some provocative issues, the most challenging of which was the notion that children alone should not be held responsible for indiscipline; a large part of the responsibility should be borne by parents. That seems to make some intuitive sense to me, even though legally it could be difficult to implement.

However, some other notable points came up in the discussion, which I flag below.

"People talk pretty in this country but when it comes to taking action...people are not prepared to take the time to solve social issues." These were the words of Wendell Callender, former head of NCPA. They echo a view I have held since following issues here in Barbados.

Jeff Broomes, President of the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools, said that schools needed in-house psychologists and a second deputy principal to aid in managing indiscipline in local schools. However, he also told listeners that he did not believe the incidence (or did he mean 'incidents'?) of misbehaviour in schools had increased in a major way but might simply be seen in a more negative light now. That makes his proposals a little hard to reconcile.

The system of allocation of children [through the 11 plus exam] contributes [greatly] to problems in schools. "Ghetto" schools are created--a first punishment for the students--and the behaviour problems that arise are dealt with by corporal punishment and other forms of punishment--second punishment for students.

Not every person who has a child is a good parent; it takes no rocket science to make a women pregnant. Parenting calls for time, and that seems to be given less these days. Discipline needs to start at an early age.

Being a good person is not the same as being a good parent. There seems to be some huge confusion in the minds of people discussing the issue that somehow or other the fact that a parent is respected, well educated, prominent, or somehow seem very positively by society, they are immune to having children who are tyrants or have other discipline problems. Again, too much of that deferential behaviour that is common here.

Problems inside schools are not divorced from problems outside school.This should be obvious, but most of the commentary I have read and heard seem to make no connection that says children bring to school bad behaviour and attitudes that they have nurtured elsewhere, and the school is just one of the arenas where they play out. No real discussion occurs on causes. So, naturally, focus is on solutions, but they are useless or at best pander to mistaken notions, because they may not be treating the roots of the problems.

Are teachers equipped to deal with discipline? They are recruited for their skills as teachers. Their training as educators does not necessarily provide good training (if any) as carers for children. Teachers may have no inclination or aptitude for dealing with children's behavioural problems.

Very tangential, was a comment by phone from a representative of the Guyanese community, talking about a recent survey on sex workers. Her views were that if there is no demand then there will be no supply. Amusingly, in a way, she added that if Guyanese are prevalent among sex workers, then it reflects that the best rises to the top. Ooh la la!