KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

With vi­o­lence es­ca­lat­ing in sec­ondary schools across T&T, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Michael Dowlath is won­der­ing whether the root lies with­in the home, par­tic­u­lar­ly in in­ci­dents of do­mes­tic abuse that chil­dren might be wit­ness­ing and repli­cat­ing.

In his Fa­ther’s Day ser­mon at the Susamachar Pres­by­ter­ian Church yes­ter­day, Dowlath, a lay preach­er and el­der, made an im­pas­sioned ap­peal for fa­thers to be more present in their fam­i­lies’ lives. He warned that vi­o­lence at home might be fu­elling in­dis­ci­pline in schools.

“Schools are sup­posed to be safe places of learn­ing. Where is that dis­re­spect com­ing from? Is it com­ing from our homes?” he asked.

“This morn­ing, as I said at the be­gin­ning, is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for us to re­flect as fa­thers on where that vi­o­lence in the wider so­ci­ety is com­ing from.

Dowlath ex­plained that chil­dren mod­el be­hav­iour from their fa­thers, mak­ing pa­ter­nal val­ues crit­i­cal to shap­ing a child’s world­view. Re­call­ing the ex­am­ple set by his own fa­ther, he said the kind of dis­re­spect wit­nessed to­day would not have oc­curred in a house­hold led by a fa­ther of faith.

“A true fa­ther pro­tects his fam­i­ly and speaks up against in­jus­tice,” he said.

Dowlath em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of be­ing present—emo­tion­al­ly, spir­i­tu­al­ly, and phys­i­cal­ly—par­tic­u­lar­ly as chil­dren face grow­ing ex­ter­nal pres­sures.

“You would have seen in the news­pa­pers the kind of vi­o­lence they are ex­posed to, the drug abuse, the peer pres­sure, and our dig­i­tal dis­trac­tions. The great­est gift a fa­ther can give his chil­dren is not wealth or sta­tus—it is a God-cen­tred foun­da­tion.”

He ac­knowl­edged and praised the every­day sac­ri­fices made by many fa­thers—those who wake ear­ly, work long hours, walk their chil­dren to school, and end each day in prayer with their fam­i­lies.

Dowlath said in his years as prin­ci­pal of Na­pari­ma Col­lege and now as MP and min­is­ter, he has met count­less fa­thers—some bold, some qui­et, many ex­haust­ed, but all striv­ing to give their fam­i­lies the best op­por­tu­ni­ties.

He de­scribed fa­ther­hood as a di­vine re­spon­si­bil­i­ty that of­fers the chance to shape homes, strength­en com­mu­ni­ties, and an­chor the na­tion’s moral com­pass.

“If we are to build a safer, stronger, and more pro­gres­sive so­ci­ety, it must be­gin with faith­ful fa­thers and fam­i­lies ground­ed in God,” the min­is­ter said.

Draw­ing from scrip­ture, Dowlath ref­er­enced Joshua 24:15: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

He ex­plained that Joshua’s de­c­la­ra­tion demon­strat­ed lead­er­ship, vi­sion, and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to faith.

“This is what we need from our fa­thers in so­ci­ety to­day. In a world of com­pet­ing loy­al­ties and con­fu­sion, Joshua bold­ly sets the spir­i­tu­al di­rec­tion of his house­hold.” 

He said while fa­thers do not al­ways have all the an­swers, they are called to choose a path root­ed in God’s truth and lead their fam­i­lies ac­cord­ing­ly.

Quot­ing Eph­esians 6:4, he high­light­ed Paul’s ex­hor­ta­tion for fa­thers to raise chil­dren with love and dis­ci­pline, not with provo­ca­tion.

“A fa­ther’s love and strength is not shown in dom­i­na­tion, but in guid­ance. It is be­ing pa­tient. It is al­low­ing our chil­dren to make mis­takes but be­ing there to pick them up and to set an ex­am­ple. So as fa­thers, we are called to be fair but firm,” Dowlath said.

He end­ed with a call for fa­thers to be­come bea­cons of sta­bil­i­ty and said house­holds should act as light­hous­es with­in their com­mu­ni­ties, of­fer­ing guid­ance, com­pas­sion and strength root­ed in faith.