Spoken Word: Who Am I?
June 18, 2025
Thursday June 19th: Take and feed!
June 19, 2025
The savagery of the recent attacks by school children on other students has shocked the nation, at least for now. This is not a new phenomenon but perhaps the frequency and ferocity of the violence have increased.
This is a complex and vexing problem, which is by no means limited to this country. We need to use every resource at our disposal to contain the anarchy before it becomes the norm.
It may come as a surprise to those outside the school system to know that school violence exists to a greater or lesser degree in ‘prestige’ schools as well as in other, less prestigious schools.
Bullying, extortion, the use of obscene, threatening, and insulting language, taxing and theft, exist in all our nation’s schools. Online bullying is rampant and results in anxiety, depression, fear and even suicide among targeted students.
Vandalism of school property and of teachers’ and students’ personal property, sexual harassment, and the sale of illegal drugs and of the increasingly popular and extremely harmful ‘vapes’ are manifestations of the chaos in some schools. Beatings and stabbings are extreme but now less uncommon forms of student-to-student violence.
Social media platforms have revealed that girls as well as boys engage in such behaviours, and that the primary system is not immune to the ugliness that can beset children from age five to age 18 or 19.
Easy access to online violence, especially in games, as well as constant exposure to international bullying of nations by richer and more powerful ones impact upon young, developing minds.
Domestic violence, nationwide crime, and the road rage that have become a daily occurrence help to desensitise our youth to the effects of violence on themselves and on others.
Some of the goals of the educational system–primarily student learning, healthy social interaction among students and between students and the adults in the educational community, and the exploration of ideas, philosophies and the positive values of other societies, become thwarted or lost when classroom disruptions or school-wide violence erupts.
The Prime Minister has called for the expulsion of violent student offenders but while that may result in relieving some stress in schools, it will probably lead to even worse scenarios in the not-too-distant future.
The anger of the ‘rejects’, some of whom struggle with basic literacy and numeracy and who could not reasonably be expected to find satisfaction or success in the system as it currently obtains, will be unleashed on the wider society.
Crime will skyrocket even more as the need for self-affirmation, the urgency to pay for necessities and a hardening of attitude towards the rights, safety and well-being of others take an increasingly sinister turn.
Our country urgently needs school counsellors to serve the needs of every school, ongoing remediation, syllabi that are relevant to the needs and talents of students who wish to pursue academic programmes or to enter trades and crafts.
We must also emphasise the need for attitudes and teaching methodologies that uplift rather than demean ‘non-academic’ learners.
The provision of healthy and tasty school meals must remain a priority as must the provision of reliable school transport. The roles of organisations like Servol, and programmes like Military-Led Academic Training (MiLAT) and Military-Led Youth Programme of Apprenticeship and Restoration Training (MYPART) must be supported, strengthened, and expanded.
The fact is that emotional, psychological, or spiritual pain is at the heart of the problem in our schools.
The perpetrator may not even fully recognise their pain as it has become an integral part of their life. Their pain is then redirected to the victim whose suffering can sometimes be denied by authorities who see no solution to the crises that they face.
It takes an entire nation to create the kind of citizen who builds, innovates, and contributes to the dignity and welfare of fellow citizens.
We cannot afford to fail our youth. We must persevere in our mission to mould our schools into places where all students feel valued and safe and where they are encouraged to develop the gifts unique to each one.
