THE EDITOR, Sir:THE CONCEPT of a village nurturing and caring for its most vulnerable people, is important in any society. The family is one of the agents of socialisation. Socialisation is necessary for an individual to acquire the qualities and learn the ways of his or her society, in other words to become human. The church, the media and the peer group are all agents of socialisation and play a vital role in the upbringing of an individual.
We have been witnessing a breakdown of the family structure in the Jamaican society. Statistics show that at least half of all families are single-parent families headed by a female. This is not good for any society. This is adding tremendous burden on these single mothers who must maintain both career and their families.
The concept of a village has slowly eroded over the years in the Jamaican society. Years ago an entire community would take an active role in the rearing of any child of the community. We have moved away from a spirit of community and togetherness to one of selfishness and materialism. Our proximity to North America has fuelled this greed among us. We have sacrificed our children in exchange for the material things of this world.
Recently we have read about sexual escapades involving schoolgirls on buses. Why such alarm when we all are to be blamed. We all know of these buses which are heavily tinted and which do not accept adults as passengers.
We have read or heard stories of our children at the beach and other places of entertainment during school hours. We see the street boys at the traffic lights, begging and cleaning the windows of our cars. We hear the stories of these street boys engaging in homosexual activities with men who prey on them, yet we have taken an oath of silence.
Our silence has emboldened those who prey on our children. We seem to be saying once it's not my child it's alright. We have become uncaring and callous.
The influence of the church it seems is waning. Fewer and fewer children are attending Sunday or Sabbath school. As a result many of our young people are growing up without any form of religious instruction. As adults we are a poor example for our young people. It's sad to say but some of the illicit behaviour being displayed by our teenagers is only a reflection of some of the adults in our society. We are more easily influenced by negative attitudes around us it would appear and therefore we all need some sense of balance in all our lives. This will allows us to weigh what is right from what is wrong.
No wonder the Bible in Proverbs 22 verse 6 says, "train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it." We have clearly not done a good job in this area of our responsibility to our children.
Parenting is a skill which is lacking in far too many of our parents. One cannot pass on that which one has not acquired. Some of our parents themselves need to be re-socialised and acquire those skills which are necessary to train our children.
We need to come together as a society, we need to come together as communities. We should speak out against that which is immoral in our society. We can no longer turn a blind eye, too much is at stake. Indeed it takes a village to care.
I am, etc.,
WAYNE CAMPBELL
wayne_c@anbell.net
