Today I witnessed a mother trying to comfort her daughter, whose teacher had just bullied the child in class until she broke down and cried, on her birthday! All because she failed to return a book in time. The child was embarrassed in front of the class on a day when she expected to be celebrated.
The matter struck me hard as I remembered a young man, whose school permanently damaged his ability to graduate, when his first experience of crossing the stage to receive his certificate was denied, because he forgot to return a book.
Whereas the young man qualified in his courses of study in several schools, he never was certified, thereby leaving him feeling incomplete in his education.
Teachers are vocational minded persons whose influence, good or bad, is remembered by their charges forever. Who cannot remember the slap of a white teacher in a black school where corporal punishment is banned?
Teachers are no longer the paragons of virtue, the nurturers of young minds, on whom parents depend to help raise our children, as future leaders and workers on our little island, in a changing world.
It is now just a job, and as our cockeyed, colonial, educational system is still not serving the needs of a growing nation, both teachers and students are on a conveyor belt going around the same course of one hundred years ago.
Education that is not applicable to current demands of a small island in the Caribbean is a waste of time and money, and ends up being just babysitting.
Schools and the UWI are not serving the needs of a small growing society, which requires trained talent which can be applied to established planning. Teachers are the discoverers of our local talent and are expected to help to guide it in the right direction.
Parents and teachers produce our experts, our leaders, our thieves and our killers.
As we have heard the psychologists say life from 0-7 years decides the future of a child. And if the foundation is unsure, and the child is not mentally and physically cared for with love and learning, the result is woefully damaging to their future. Just as an officer of the Police or Military are chosen for character, more so should teachers be seriously evaluated, to rule out bullies and perverts, from the honored vocation of teaching.
