EDITORIAL – In the way the young should go

SERIOUS parents should have been delighted by the police’s instilling of discipline in schoolchildren on the streets on the final day of school last week. But the disturbing questions still raise their heads. Why would police officers have to be insisting that school students be tidy on the streets? Why would officers have to be forcing lads to tuck their shirts in their pants and pull their socks up; lasses to keep their blouses in and their socks from the bottom linings of their shoes? What has happened to pride in one’s school uniform? Where has deportment gone? It cannot be gainsaid that over the years the behaviour and attitude of students have plummeted. Teachers have been unable to cope, and several students showing diligence have had their study hampered by the interference and interruptions of the pranksters and the seriously troubled.But Roman Catholic priest Father Clement Paul would have us not highlight such negativity of the youth in the Press. We need to stress that one cannot report any more than is there.Father Paul would like to give the impression all is well with our souls, but that would be a terrible mistake. It would be mollycoddling the most wishful thinking.Older folks to blameHe is right about one thing, though: the older folk are to blame for much of what the youth are doing.We are reaping what we have sown.The young people are our own.Take the school fairs, run by teachers and parents. Why are Li’l Rick’s deafening raunchy songs being played at such children’s events? What place do such musical erotic utterances like “she wuk up ’pon it” have at a primary school fair?What has happened to children’s music? Why are adults so keen on dragging children out of their natural world? Why are we not letting our children be children?Father Paul says the majority of youth are “doing good and are succeeding”. We give him that point too. But, that a minority are of disruptive behaviour should offer itself as no source of comfort. We would rather not have that conduct of our children in the schools or anywhere else at all.Responsible parents have despaired at the inability of the powers that be to restore order among this very minority –  a minority if left on its own will inflict majority pain.Leave the youth alone.They are God’s very own.Including that minority? Really, calypsonian Father Paul!