?So we've just put our 11 and 12-year-olds through the drama (or should I say trauma) of SEA (Secondary Entrance Assessment). Their introduction to education has been a long journey of rote-learning, parroting and drilling, yet this great exam will now, somehow, test their "intelligence." Ironically, they will all pass for secondary schools, despite the fact that some can't read, write or spell properly. At the same time, our 16 to 19-year-olds are sweating for CXC and CAPE, Caribbean exams they aim to excel at, though they will come out not knowing about Caribbean philosophers like Rex Nettleford and Beryl Mc Burnie. Ironically, they will finish the big school-leaving exams and then, after years of dedication to their studies, they will be told that they cannot get jobs because they have no work experience. Meanwhile, we adults put demands and pressure on our children and drill the importance of dedication and performance into them every day.
Ironically, we act as if our children don't see the news, read the papers, listen to the radio and know what is going on in our beloved country. We tell them they are the future. While we expect prestige school passes and distinctions, we act as if our children should expect nothing of us. Because if our children read about Despers having to flee Laventille because of the crime situation, then they should be able to tell us they are stepping down from school because of the issues of bullying and crime they have to deal with there. If our children heard about the mystery church in the underdeveloped area of Arima, then they should be entitled to drop subjects like geography, social studies, history and ethics. If our children saw the smiling face of the now missing-in-action foreigner who is responsible for much of our "First World development," then they would know that subjects like business management, mathematics and comprehension are a waste of time.
If our children listened to our leaders, ministers and those in authority addressing the public, then they should automatically know that subjects like English language and communication studies don't count when one is in power. If our children realised that water lines, healthcare, roads, telephone services have not developed at the same speed as we tell them they have to, then they will know that what we say and what we do are two very different things. It seems to me that while we tell our children to go to school and perform, we ourselves are doing a great performance in a Shakespearean tragedy divided into acts on banditry, immorality, incompetence, conceit, deceit, bullying, indiscipline and unaccountability. It occurs to me that Napa is not a building, but the entire cast of the Nationwide Adults Perfecting Asininity on this T&T stage.
So then I realise how important our children's exams are to us, rather than to them, because these exams keep our children occupied enough to not see that we are failing in the school of life. So SEA, CAPE, CXC curtains, rise! Lights, sound, action! Students, keep your heads in the books until you see stars. Do not look up, do not notice, do not analyse, do not assess, do not question, most of all, do not think. Your success will be guaranteed if you recognise that education has nothing to do with politics, social values, societal development, self- awareness and, most of all, thought. Your grades on paper will tell us how academically rich you are; we are not interested in your analytic poverty, because our experts tell us that your analytic poverty ensures our superiority. Remember: in order to achieve maximum performance you must ignore our own performance. Whatever you do, do not, I repeat, do not, look at us, because Lord knows, we really can't teach you anything!
?Joanne Haynes
Via e-mail