If he held the reins of power for just one day, Jason Francis would make all new fathers and mothers take a course in parenting.
Francis, president of the Barbados Youth Development Council (BYDC), believes one of the issues that needs to be seriously addressed across Barbados is how children are raised.
He said that the family was the bedrock of society and a national parenting campaign was necessary to train parents, especially teenagers, on how to cater to the developmental needs of their children.
According to Francis, a problem that is being seen in the young people and which may have a root in the home is low self-esteem, with some people not seeing themselves as being able to achieve.
He said that when young people lacking self-esteem or self-worth became parents they passed on all their fears, criticisms and insecurities to their offspring.
The 27-year-old secondary school teacher said he would like to hold a mass rally to motivate the young people, to give them encouragement and to show them that they are loved.
“I want to show them that they can achieve beyond what they might see at the moment and address the core issue of self-esteem. This would give hope to our young people,” Francis said.
He talked of young people who went to university, did all that they were supposed to do to get their career going, but could not find a job.
Hard to progress
“It is like we have kept on the straight and narrow and after doing all of that it seems so difficult to progress,” Francis remarked.
On the other hand, Francis said, it was difficult sometimes trying to convince young people to take advantage of the opportunities because some did not think the opportunities were for them.
He said some adults contributed to the problem.
“There is a lot of criticism from adults who should know better, where they have a culture of trying to pull down what is positive and not giving constructive criticism and that is what most of the young people are afraid of – that negative criticism,” Francis said.
He said that a space should be created for young people to have their concerns addressed and that there should be opportunities for participation.
Francis said that by nature he is a shy person and all of his leadership positions have in some way been thrust upon him.
However, as a member of the council he saw an opportunity to take over and rebuild the agency, therefore he committed himself to the process and brought a level of commitment to people’s development.
On the issue of values and morals, Francis said that the family was to teach children values and in a lot of cases that did not happen – it was left to the school.
Francis, who teaches sociology and history at Harrison College, said teachers do not have the same level of support from the parents that they received in previous years.
His advice for young people is to think critically about their life and what they want to do and achieve, to take good suggestions and constructive criticism to heart and use that to inform their decisions.
“At the end of the day it is their life; it is not what your mother, father or whoever else wants,” he said.
“You have to decide where you want to go and what you want to do and make the wisest choices with the help of God.”
