For every jackass that come out of the school system with a twisted mind, it have at least fifty more that came out with an ambition or a goal in life to do better. For every idiot you see making a spectacle of themself on tv blaming other peoples for their woes, it have a hundred more watching the telly and thinking "that blasted jackass need a cutarse, or a job, or both.
Perhaps social services are not as great as they could be but the overall system that people are carping about WORKED for a great many of us. And I for one am such a staunch supporter of the education system in T&T that I have purposely chosen to send the kiddies back to T&T for school rather than let them go here in the US.
The system works if you have people willing to make it work. If there are parents or a parent or a grandparent or a tanty or a nenen, somebody willing to work with you. And I am sure that even in Lavantille or any of the impoverished neighbourhoods in T&T right now somewhere there is a little girl or little boy sitting down to homework because they know that is their ticket to the world. SO if they could do it, what wrong with the rest of the area?
Oh wait.. they too busy blaming everyone else for their own shortcomings.
Jeez Verycute, I wanted to to just keep this short and simple and not to be lured into posting anything long for hopefully some weeks or more,.. but you've left me no choice....
Yes, even in the worst of systems(not saying ours is the worst) there's always people who excel through their own personal drive, and through the good elements in the system, but does that excuse all the shortcomings, and should we accept sub par systems for fear of offending? No. Also, recently the system has gotten much worse than it was before. In my opinion our tertiary education system is generally good, but that can't be said for the secondary school and primary school system. Of course there are some good schools(a few) and many good and caring teachers dispersed throughout the system, but that doesn't excuse the absolute lack of diligent regulating and rule enforcing that allows many people with deep personal issues, abusive and negligent tendencies who are teachers to teach totally vulnerable children unchecked and be in charge of children for most of the day and have them at their mercy. I believe that the education ministry has done a good job in the LAYOUT of the education system(again,I'm talking about primary and secondary schools)- the textbooks the have chosen are very good, the curriculum IF taught will give children very well rounded knowledge, the rules and regulations they've set are good, free textbooks program is excellent,etc) The Education ministry is doing a decent job, but their problem, like the rest of the government, lies with their inability or disregard for diligent enforcement of they own regulations in the monitoring of schools and teachers. I believe in striving for perfection in everything, or at least excellence and striving to at least be as good as the best in the world in some particular aspect. Compared to other countries, our school curriculum is good, but in many other aspects we are very sub par,e.g.- the way that many many teachers interact with and treat children is atrocious. (particularly primary school)
Do you think that children should be beaten if they get a maths sum or some other work wrong? Should they if they don't have some stationary- is that their fault? It's proven that at a young age children should be allowed to express themselves freely to enable their proper development.The opposite of that happens here.( I know everyone will think I'm bashing T&T and disagree vehemently with me but I doh care, the fact is that generally people in T&T can't smoothly verbally articulate their thoughts and express themselves) Should teachers regularly not go to work and when they do barely teach anything.(many teachers do this in secondary schools around the nation) In primary school, where children are introduced to education and form their views on it- the view most get at best is that education and school is a necessary chore, and not a love for and excitement in acquiring knowledge, that will lead them to lifelong learning. The Ministry's text books are very good(speaking about primary school now), they have many interactive and practical activities for teachers to do with students, that the children will enjoy and take interest and learn at the same time, but teachers by and large don't do them, probably because it's too much of a bother, and they think true education and being intelligent is just sitting in a classroom with pen and paper,
The social services- they're almost nonexistent, perhaps you've never been in a situation where you needed them personally or for someone else. Of course there are people in the system who try and I really appreciate them, but that doesn't excuse the failure of the system as a whole.
Of course there are many many factors outside school that determine the course of someone's life and the type of person they'll develop into, but schooling plays a significant role. The fact is that in their formative years most children spend much more time with their teachers than with their parents-especially nowadays. Therefore teachers have a tremendous impact on not only the children's education, but their mental development overall, so significant care must took to ensure that the impact teachers leave is overall positive-once again, this can be done by diligently enforcing a set of guidelines for all teachers and schools to operate under, because as you alluded to, many people have turned out good from the system, but it can't be hit and miss and only those who have the good fortune of ending up in a bright spot get through well.
Even if you go on to have success in life- bad experiences in your formative years at school-as at home, can still have many detrimental impacts on your mind and character- and most do not realize them, much more determine the source. I've experienced for the most part the positives of the system. I've by and large had the fortune to end up in mostly the bright spots of our education system, but I know many people who haven't and their negatives experiences as a child has really affected them(e.g. being called stupid and badly beaten for every twitch, everyday by a teacher, who it was eventually found out was being severely abused by her husband), but just like any other negative experience in life that affects determined and strong people, they fight it and walk on and are doing alright. Does that say the negatives are any less bad? No. (I'm not even talking about the people who's lives are in ruins, for many many reasons, but their experiences in school are but one of the many reasons that assisted in it, or in the least they didn't present themselves as they should, as a path that looks much different from the terrible abusiveness they were accustomed to, a reasonable, stimulating and enjoyable culture that they want to be a part of, so that the less personally-driven children who're in hardship could see school as where they want to be)
I also know a retired teacher, who taught primary school all her life, and only realized the detrimental impacts of how she and many many other primary school teachers interact with children(i.e. like unreasonable beasts), only when she had a few months left before she retired from over 25yrs teaching, it haunts her what the trauma and potential scarring she's left on some children's minds. Overall, in our primary and sec. school system there are many positives( some very good schools and very good hardworking, admirable and caring teachers.), that results in the success of many, but that doesn't mean you should overlook the negatives(even if we never experienced them ourselves) and the less than stellar schools and behaviour of many teachers. The ministry's layout of the system is decent, so they have a good base, they just have to set clear guidelines that teachers and schools MUST ALL operate under, and diligently enforce them.
I'm not excusing individuals taking account for themselves at all, in fact I'm very annoyed at people who just blame others for their failures, instead of taking accountability for themselves and saying they'll achieve no matter what. If everyone does that and all achieve success, does that excuse the negatives in the system and mean they have no lasting bad impact on their minds and lives(even though they've achieved success), and that we shouldn't tackle the terrible issues? No is doesn't.
Many things are responsible for the type of persons that have Trinidad in this mess,but the thing is that children are at school more than anywhere else and under the influence of their teachers more than anyone else in their formative years(speaking about primary school again- that's where most of my qualms lie), so therefore specifically primary school is a large determinant of the type of individual a child develops into together with their parents, and arguably more nowadays, as many many parents don't strongly guide their children on the correct course for life, and some try their best, but barely ever see their children because of work very long and conflicting work schedules that mean they hardly see their children, so if they are impacted terribly negatively during the day, they don't have enough time to reverse any negative impact.
This isn't even counting the extremely high number of physical(caused plenty times by pent up frustration from our pressurized society) and sexual abuse children endure from parents and other close individuals in this country, because of the none existent social services has allowed it to spiral out of control through the years.
As my retired teacher friend found out, teachers(particularly in early childhood and primary school) and schools have a TREMENDOUS important job-in reality, they're shaping lives, and the choices they make will greatly assist in shaping the lives of the children either positively or negatively. I greatly support these teachers getting the highest salaries reasonably possible because of the importance, responsibilities and pressures of their job, but in exchange, I also expect them to get intense training on how to ideally deal with, influence and manage children for their best, healthy and happy development, how to teach as to develop love for knowledge and learning. Also, how to manage stress, and they should have counselors ready available to them if they're undergoing problems and stress, to healthily let it out and deal with it. There should be more accountability, and systems of such. I remember hearing Barack Obama say something to this effect, and I totally agree with him.
There will always be problems, issues and things less than ideal, even in the best systems around the world. The thing is, that doesn't mean we should accept them, we should still work and strive for excellence and perfection(even though it's unattainable), in every aspect of every system, and don't accept anything less or be afraid to speak out for fear of offending others. I'm a realist but also an optimist, and that's how I see things.
Take care.
