THE EDITOR, Sir:
I FEEL that I need to share an incident with all of Jamaica especially since most schools have recently re-opened.
A friend of mine told me that her nine-year-old son who attends an all-age school in St. Catherine and is in Grade 4, came home from school one day last week and told her that the teacher asked the class to write a composition on "myself." The final sentence he put in the composition was "my ambition is to become a poilite." He said that he wants to become a "pilot." The teacher wrote "police," above the word and then explained to him that he might not be able to become a "pilot" but he could become a "policeman"!
Can you imagine! Teachers, who should be the agents of change, a catalyst, to bring hope to every child, to encourage every child that he/she can be anything he/she wants to be. My understanding is that the teacher is supposed to guide the child to aim for the stars. Whether he/she achieves them is not the teacher's concern, but, with one fell swoop this teacher planted a seed into a nine-year-old child to let him feel that he is not good enough to achieve his dreams. The mother told the child that he can achieve anything he wants to in life, and rightly so!
I advised the mother to go to the teacher and report her displeasure and disapproval, but I am well-aware that that advice could be a recipe for disaster for the child, because from hereon he may be hated and picked on by the teacher. But I could not contain myself because I am eaten up inside when I think of the eternal damage that that teacher may have done to her student.
The incident highlights the importance of providing our children with strong family support. To send them out into the school system without strong ideals, instilled by their family is to expose them to many seeds of thought; many of which may be negative.
How can we have teachers like this in our school system? That teacher is also disrespecting "policemen" because she is implying that they are not too bright and that low achievers should only aspire to be "policemen." I could not help but think that if this is so, no wonder the police force is plagued with many problems. No wonder there is the perception that many of our cops are corrupt. The force may contain several former students who were not expected to achieve much in life.
I think that that teacher has served her usefulness and ought to retire. The reality of the situation is that there are others like her who are a liability to the teaching profession and to the other teachers who genuinely work hard and care much for their students. I wonder what her past students have achieved in life because of or in spite of her poor attitude and low expectations of them?
I mentioned this incident to a high school teacher who grew up in England and she said that she was not surprised because that is how they did it in England and she grew up under that shadow. Black children were not expected to achieve much! She said she was fortunate to have an Asian teacher who wrote on her report that she was "college material." However, I did not expect a similar attitude so close to home and in this day and age. It is too close for comfort!
The Minister of Education may need to look into situations such as this.
I am, etc.,
KADY
Spanish Town
