So the poor children have finished another SEA. I feel so sorry for them and for all of you who have such bad memories of primary school days in T&T. I was fortunate, my parents moved to Venezuela while I was in what was called the scholarship class at Tranquillity Boys and I did most of my primary education in American schools at oil company camps. Secondary education was at boarding school, the Abbey School up Mt St Benedict, which was not that pleasant but at least sports were encouraged and pedophilic priests, local and foreign, relatively uncommon, once you made it clear you were not interested.
It's always fascinated me, however, to hear so called big, hard-back men, not that there are many here, complain about their experiences in primary and yet stand aside to allow their children to go through the same mind-killing experiences. Amongst the worst is that 11 plus exam or SEA, whatever the technicians in the Ministry of Education, a mindless oxymoron if there ever was one, decide to call it.
Let me tell you why.
Children learn by playing. If a child does not play they do not develop their fine and gross motor skills, their body awareness and social competence and emotional maturity. Play supports children's emotional development. It provides a way to express and cope with feelings.
School success largely depends on children's ability to interact positively with all their peers and adults. I do not define school success as coming first in test. T&T is full of people who came first in test in primary school and are now considered failures and unhappy ones at that. Even most of the so-called successful ones are unhappy with their life because they have never learned to express and cope with their feelings.
Play develops creative thought and expression. In 1958 Sigmund Freud suggested that every child at play "behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, rearranges the things of his world in a new way which pleases him." Creative thought enhances problem solving. Creative thought, whether adult or child, has its roots in play. When young children use their imaginations in play, they learn to be more creative and therefore perform better at school tasks.
Our children are not being allowed to play in schools. Parents tell me that their children are not allowed to go outside for recess any more. It not safe. They will sweat. They could fall down and hurt themselves. The reasons are multiple but stupid. They are stifling children.
Then you have the ridiculous exams. Children are pressured to learn by rote to pass exams. Critical thinking skills and creativity and the possibility of getting involved in practical science, engineering, programming, cooking, gardening and so on is frowned upon. All the fun and initiative in learning is taken away. Creativity is pushed out. Independence disappears. Fun is now considered a special occasion. So the child learns that fun is bad. Play is bad. He is told so. Work is good.
The dull child who learns woodenly is praised. The lively one is sent to someone calling themselves a "psychologist" (there are dozens of such frauds in the country), who "diagnose" ADHD (and for good measure, "a hint of ADHD"... like a "hint of pregnancy") plus a learning disability and anxiety disorder. There are doctors around waiting to give medications for this when all that is needed is some common sense and a change of teacher or school.
Our curriculum is far too focused on tests. There is no balance in the curriculum. It lacks arts, music and PE and areas of learning that are vital to physical and emotional health and balance in life. Exams teach children that stress, competition and overreaching is normal which can then affect the mental and physical health of the child. So they learn that that is fine and that is what is expected of them.
We should do what parents recently did in the UK. Boycott these exams. True the protests were sporadic. Only about 30,000 parents (out of about 750,000) went on strike but it was the first time that so many came out and refused to allow their children to be abused. Because the SEA is child abuse. It's emotional child abuse. Have any of you tried to take the SEA? I have and I failed. I'm in good company it seems. Last Tuesday a UK Minister of Education failed a language question on live radio while he was trying to defend the 11 plus exam.
Take the test yourself.
Re the sentence, "I went to the cinema after I'd eaten my dinner."
"Is the word 'after' there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?"
I don't know about you but I fail right away. What in heaven's name is a subordinating conjunction? And why do I have to learn nonsense like that when I will never, ever, use it. So you start to get that queasy, hollow feeling in the middle of your stomach and you start to sweat. You're failing! You know how that affects an 11-year-old? A failure at 11! Why don't we ask the Minister of Education and some of his advisers to take their SEA exam, live, on television?
No they won't do that. They too busy planning how to pose in three months time with the poor children who come in the top ten.