To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. – Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations.
THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE we all hold dearly in this blessed country of ours. And oft-times we choose well. That’s because we know who we are and what we stand for – well, most of us.
And we are ever sure where we want to go, and why.
Given these truths, we are therefore flummoxed by the ambivalence of some Barbadians today toward discipline in the school. Parents want to be assured of their children’s safety and positive inculcation, yet argue cases for student abandon.
Certainly we cannot under the guise of protecting “constitutional and human rights” continue to protest the regulation of cellphone use in schools vis-Ã -vis the banning of this accursed implement during school hours. The evidence is there: that the cell has been used for cheating in exams (one of the most heinous crimes of the classroom), and the downloading and sharing of unwholesome and vulgar music and pornography of all manner and category.
Given our acclaimed ability to choose well, we ought not to be on any collision course with Minister of Education Ronald Jones or his Acting Chief Education Officer Laurie King. We ought to know why we need to go the route of the cellephone ban.
Honesty dictates that the detestable abuse of the thing is a disruptive force in the classroom, and common sense insists that that disruption is a hindrance to profound learning. We have no doubt teachers would be rid of the intruding cellephone so they can get on with the business of educating their charges.
And it has not helped that the behaviour generally of pupils has nosedived. Teachers have been unable to cope, while dedicated and diligent students have been distracted from their books.
Only recently, the Press has exposed the sexual misconduct of school students all across Barbados – to the very Minister of Education’s shock and apparent state of denial. We have come to the sorry state where security guards now have to stand watch at the entrances of school toilets.
The responsible among us have despaired at the inability of some schools to restore order and decency. This circumstance has not been without the bombast of uncooperative parents. We need to get teachers – and the principal – back in control.
The disruptive cellphones on school premises are to be confiscated and returned to the parents or guardians of offending students at the end of the term in which they are seized. Parents have been so advised. Responsible as we expect them to be, we look forward from September to see them rally around order and respect for authority – in their children’s own interests.
Like Mr Jones, we are concerned that $1/2 billion plus is being pumped into education annually, to have large chunks of it texted away into nothingness by unattentive students in the classroom – the consequence of which may be the cyberpunk.
Truth be told, plain common sense must be allowed back in school!
