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Should We Hire Peter Wickham As A Consultant In Education?

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Submitted by Bush tea

children doing exams

It seems that Barbados’s resident expert on everything from homosexuality, to God and now China has turned his attention to the 11 plus exam and specifically to its abolition. It seems that every day now, Wickham has been using his VOB provided call-in platform to insult and down cry the process used for decades to allocate Barbadian children to the secondary school system. Bush tea is calling for the recruitment of Mr Wickham as a special consultant in the Ministry of education, with the role of removing the 11 plus scourge from our society.

……Why not? It seems that we have reached a stage where idiots are highly valued in national decision making.

Wickham would fit well into the kind of system we have, where someone could decide to construct flyovers and execute road works to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars – WITHOUT AN AGREED PLAN; where Greenland, after 50 million dollars is back to square 1, and where we build a new $300 million prison and put the same jokers who burnt down the old one to run it. Peter will be ‘at home’ in a leadership position in this country where we have no plan for energy, no plan for traffic, none for solid waste etc.

Fair, transparent and democratic

The 11 plus exam is one of the very best aspects of the education system of Barbados. It is fair, transparent, and democratic. The 11 plus removes the traditional advantage that wealth normally provides such that it is now tradition that the children of all classes in Barbados have equal access to the very best academic choices. With our limited resources, it is obvious that the arrangement where children of similar abilities are grouped and then moved along at their various learning capacities is most efficient.

Most important, by any standard used, Barbados stands out as a model country in terms of our ability to produce large percentages of literate citizens, a well educated population and significant percentages of citizens proceeding to complete tertiary education….. The system works fairly well.

There is ONLY one real reason why people like Wickham are seeking to scrap the 11 plus system, it is to feed the inferiority complex that they have developed within themselves, as a result of not being able to say that they are graduates of Harrison College. This obviously hurts Wickham gravely…. But Bush tea thinks that he was lucky indeed to get into Foundation.

The problem as I indicated before- is Wickham’s ego and his delusions of grandeur which are not supported by the appropriate inherent ability and aptitude.

Again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with our 11 plus system. It effectively screens our children by academic ability and should enable us to focus our scarce resources to produce significant numbers of educated citizens who do have the capacity and aptitude to perform needed leadership roles for the country. It is no coincidence that most of our leaders have been HC graduates – the system is designed to produce exactly that result.

Anyone with a little common sense knows that when we equalize conditions, we always settle at the lowest common denominator. High standards are derived by selection and dedication to purpose. How are Olympic athletes developed? In any case, if we allocate schools based on zoning only, some schools will still turn out be better than others, and inevitably, those who of us can afford to, will choose to ‘live’ in those zones and we will be back to a situation of education by class.

The problem is not the ‘prestige’ schools, it is the poor planning that our Ministry of Education puts into that group of children whose natural talents does not include academics. If Wickham wants to know what really needs to be done to improve education in Barbados, Bush tea (who also did not go to HC) is more than willing to offer suggestions

… We need some MORE 11 Plus tests….

The existing 11 plus works extremely well to identify and classify academic talents in our 11 year olds.

We need additional ‘11 plus’ test to classify our children into the following (and other) talent categories:

  • Arts and Music
  • Sports
  • Industrial skills
  • Culinary arts
  • etc

We should then configure our schools to group ALL the various talented students by seeking to cater to their respective strengths. This way, each school would be a Harrison College in its respective area of talent development.

This would of course, be a far easier means of improving our system, but why should we consider such an approach? After all there are no million-dollar contracts (with kick-backs) involved. It does call for a little thought; but we would all be winners…. Under such a scheme, even Peter Wickham may have found some (yet untapped) talent that could have seen him becoming an asset to the country.

Scrap what 11 plus what?!?

Let us scrap Peter Wickham from promulgating his idiotic nonsense day after day on VOB.

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124 responses to “Should We Hire Peter Wickham As A Consultant In Education?”

  1. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Adrian Hinds
    You do not have your facts correct about Colonel Deighton Maynard, Commanding Officer, Barbados Defence Force or Alan Jones, Permanent Secretary. Mr Maynard attended Combermere, where he was a hockey player. Mr Jones came over to HC from the Modern High in the 6th form where he was active in the Cadets and the photographic club.

  2. John Avatar
    John

    Peter

    Why not give credit to the children for being gifted…

    … to the parents and teachers for engineering their successes and

    .. to God for putting them all together.

    What is a school?

    Certainly not the buildings or the location.

    Most of what the child needs to be successful in the detailed classroom work and examinations can be taught under a tree or at home. Attidude is not taught in a classroom by a teacher.

    Home schooling exists.

    My Grandfather almost missed going to Foundation when he was as boy in the early 1900’s because he was coloured and Foundation was for poor white boys.

    His family was poor but there was the colour question.

    He got in I believe because he was the grandchild of a member of an influential family and that family looked out for him. It did not matter that the member was dead.

    He was also gifted at Maths and worked hard. I would like to think that swung it for him but I doubt it.

    When he graduated he went back and taught Maths for a short time at the same school he nearly didn’t get to go to.

    He taught me Maths when I was a boy on a Sunday afternoon.

    All of his children followed him to Foundation in the 1920’s and 30’s. When he could afford it they went to HC and QC.

    Some were successful, some were not.

    Some would have preferred to have remained at Foundation where they were happy and doing perfectly well.

    That’s life, things change.

    Colour and high school fees no longer figure in the decision process of whether a child gets to go to secondary school.

    The common entrance exam has had successes .. and failures. Maybe it is no longer relavent. Whatever system is used should be fair, … not equal, but fair and tranparent.

    We need to get over our past, open our eyes and reward performace.

    We need to make it cool again for a child to excel at school, whether it be theoretical or practical.

    …. and we need to be able to spot the differing abilities of children early and not make them waste their time and get jaded doing something they are not suited to do.

  3. Bush tea Avatar
    Bush tea

    Yardbroom,

    Careful where you are going with that logic…

    …are you saying then, that a citizen who goes into the field of teaching- and by training and professional development (and by actual on the job performance) reaches the top of his or her field, should command the same salary and status as the Lawyer who does the same , or the banker or (ahem!!) the sanitation worker?

    …are you further saying that in a society where the state pays for this education anyway, there is no justifiable reason why salaries should not be tied to net contribution to national requirements (as opposed, for example, to lawyers who can legislate mandatory minimum fees and that simple transactions MUST require their paid attention?)

    …you see what happened to Castro?

    That line of thinking does not fit into modern government. (makes too much sense…)

    ….the irony is that a top class sanitation person who could solve our garbage problems would be worth all our lawyers bagged together… come to think of it these may not be independent events… 😉

  4. Asiba-The Buffalo Solstill too much FAT on the roaddier Avatar
    Asiba-The Buffalo Solstill too much FAT on the roaddier

    WHAT we are really facing is the result of a colonial mentality brought about in the caribbean by our experience during slavery and the attendant discrimination thereafter.

    such devices as the elite schools and all the other social devices , even cricket,were used to say that white people were superior to black people. Some of the same devices have been used by black people to justify than they are better than other blacks.

    If you go to Harrison College , you are better than the other guy because initially white people went to Harrison College and white people were better than blacks so Harrison College would have to be the best-(brain washing)

    Ditto for all other things: if you wear a suit you are BETTER dressed than the other guy, You are appropriately dress even though the hot tropical climate is not conducive to such wear. But no it looks good beacuse when you see an englishman in a book or in person and you see him in jacket and tie because of the climate he lives in. White people are dressed that way so it has to be right , good and proper.—-I say that dressing in such a manner is inappropriate and is part of the brainwashing that has taken place.

    You want to live in the biggest house that you can, even though it is not necessary. Why you want that is beacuse the white man that you know lives in a big house -the plantation house was called -the Great House. White man lives in it so it has to be right and proper

    So EDUCATION is looked at as good if you can demonstrate that you possess what it takes to function in the world of the greedy white man with its attendant racial and social discrimination and segregation. So you want to be a lawyer or a medical doctor not a bush doctor as if bush doctors do not possess knowledge . Initially where did the lawyers and doctors in Barbados go to school ?—your ANSWER

    So we are dealing with some serious psychological issues that can only be resolved by teaching our people our history. This will make them believe in themselves. love themselves and have confidence that there are people too even if they are carpenters and masons. That they are not the scum of the earth, that many bright people were denied opportunities for education because of our history.

    Therefore if the 11 plus is being used to reinforce the class discrimination that existed before, it should be revamped.

    WE NEED TO TEACH OUR HISTORY
    IT WILL LIBERATE OUR MINDS

    Asiba Will Be Back

  5. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Asiba

    you wrote “This will make them believe in themselves. love themselves and have confidence that there are people too even if they are carpenters and masons” .

    I object to the words “even if” in that sentence. I strongly suggest that these be replaced by the word “because”.

  6. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    Bush Tea
    You know I am with you on this! you are being mischievous…as for Castro that is another story.

  7. John Avatar
    John

    Asiba

    Islam refers to a christian as an infidel, …. and christianity I now learn returns the compliment.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infidel

    Heathen is also a word with a similar meaning.

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heathen

    If I were to be taken to a Muslim country as a slave I would be termed an infidel or a heathen.

    Perhaps this is a bad example and will get me in trouble and I should try Mars instead.

    Suppose little green men from Mars came down to earth and took me, and you to Mars as their slave.

    If Martians actually existed and considered themselves to be persons, I figure we would be non persons.

    For one thing, neither one of us would be green.

    Slaves were not brought to Barbados to be converted to christianity or integrated into the legal system of the day or to be sent to school.

    They were brought here to work and do their owners bidding.

    Slavery existed from ancient times, all over the world. The owners here at the particular time in history (1627-1834) were mostly white, those in Africa were mostly black. Colour did not define ownership.

    For 200 plus years, slaves in Barbados were “non persons”, no rights in law, not members of the church, just property of free men and women who belonged to a church and called themselves christians.

    There were exceptions. Some slaves were admitted into the church through baptism from the 1600’s, some were freed and then admitted into the Church.

    As free men and women, and christians, these exslaves became entitled to own property, to worship at church and to do what other free men and women did and what we do today and take for granted.

    No doubt there was no equality but on paper, it existed.

    They even owned slaves, which we can’t today.

    In fact in the 1817 returns, 600 plus free negroes and free mulattoes owned a few thousand of the 80,000 slaves registered.

    Even the Right Excellent Sarah Ann Gill, Free Mulatto, owned slaves and made returns for them.

    After emancipation, it took time for freed slaves to integrate into the religious and secular life of the country, and be accepted.

    Schools such as HC, Lodge, Combermere and Foundation at first only would have had chidren of free men and women who could afford to send them there.

    HC and Lodge go back to the 1700’s, Foundation was destroyed in the 1831 hurricane and then rebuilt so it predates emancipation.

    Combermere it is said, predated them all under a different name.

    Lord Combermere was Governor of Barbados in the 1800’s, shortly before emancipation. Found this fascinating link when I went looking.

    http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Ghosts/Combermere.html

    I am not trying to justify any part of our history just to understand it and at the moment this in a few words is what I understand.

    I take your point that we need to teach our history, but I suspect we first need to learn it!!

    .. and yes, I agree, it will liberate our minds.

    Much of what we see today is explicable in terms of our history, …. not right, but explicable.

    Still, Barbados is a miracle, real blood should have shed, but instead of shedding it we shared it.

    We could learn alot from our past and think a bit more about our future.

  8. Bush tea Avatar
    Bush tea

    Yardbroom

    I have to be mischievous , I am totally at a loss as to the overriding lack of logic that we seem to apply at the macro level of organisational planning. (Globally, not just here..) We continue to plant limes and optimistically expect to reap golden apples….

    One last point I will make on this 11 plus issue.

    Peter and his supporters, by suggesting that zoning may be a way to ‘solve the traffic problem’ – are really taking the debate to the very lowest levels.

    …I can think of very few things more important to the future of this country than the effective education of our children. It is insulting to even consider compromising education to improve traffic…. somewhat along the line of discarding one’s children to help ease the strain of increasing food prices..

    IT IS WELL WORTH ANY TRAFFIC CHAOS that results if this movement facilitates the better education of this country’s children.

    Peter,

    ..as man –
    Admit that you got it wrong on the 11 plus, and that you have now reconsidered your position.

    I will still attack you on the other issues on which you are also wrong, (everything else..) but maybe you would sleep a little better….. 😉

    ps – PWW, DON’T MIND DAVID

    What propagate ideas what?!?

    Try and keep off this blog. It ain’t easy bout here hear? You won’t be able to hang up no phone on people and then castigate them when they can’t talk back…

    …The licks bout here does be HOT HOT. Check with Bimbro before you come here with any nonsense – never mind Bush tea, they have a ‘Technician’ bout here that ROUGH ROUGH… and nuff ‘Adrians’…

    STICK TO BRASSTACKS…

  9. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    Asiba
    I would like to make a few observations based on the issues you have raised.

    However I would make them under separate headings, although there might be some relationship between them.

    (a) Colonial subjugation
    (b) Slavery
    (c) Elite Schools in Barbados.
    (d) Superiority based on Race.
    (e) Appropriate clothind based on climate and culture.
    (f) Professional structures in employment.
    (g) Behaviour reinforced by subjugation.
    (h) Freedom and… circumscribed freedom.

    The above would go off topic if addressed with an in depth analysis.

    Perhaps another time, we can explore a few avenues.

  10. Micro-Mock Engineer Avatar
    Micro-Mock Engineer

    “His approach would therefore give us more ‘Peter Wickhams’ at the expense of ‘Errol Barrows’ and ‘Tom Adams’”
    ——————————————————–

    Actually, Peter Wickham is a product of the 11-plus exam. Errol Barrow and Tom Adams were NOT.

    The 11-plus exam was introduced to Barbados in 1959.

    Errol Barrow was 11 years old in 1931
    Tom Adams was 11 in 1942
    Bree St. John was 11 in 1942
    Erskine Sandiford was 11 in 1948
    Owen Arthur was 11 in 1960
    David Thompson was 11 in 1972

    The first Prime Minister of Barbados to sit the 11-plus exam passed for See-Pee; the second passed for Cow-bull-mare.

    Uh wonder what schools the rest would have passed for had they been required to sit the 11-plus. Does it matter?

    This focus on the 11-plus is a COMPLETE waste of time and effort (…but nuff fun).

    Clearly the ENTIRE education system could do wid ah overhaul. Jus look at de failure rate! You could imagine running a factory, an only 20% of your products does pass quality control?!? …and ALL of de remaining 80% are thrown in the failure bin.

    An to mek matters worse… of the 20% dat leave de first factory for de second ‘finished product’ factory, de majority are installed in products without any consideration of society’s needs…

    What 11-plus what?!? You could switch to zoning tomorrow and it wun mek no difference to de performance of our education system… STEUPSSSEEE.

    Bush tea got to know dis… I suspect he just couldn’t resist de opportunity to put some blows in Wickham.

  11. Asiba-The Buffalo Soldier-still too much FAT on the road Avatar
    Asiba-The Buffalo Soldier-still too much FAT on the road

    Anonymous !

    I totally agree with you that i should not have used the words -“even if” and I WITHDRAW those words.

    Thank You!
    ————————————————————
    JOHN writes
    “Slavery existed from ancient times, all over the world. The owners here at the particular time in history (1627-1834) were mostly white, those in Africa were mostly black. Colour did not define ownership.”

    ASIBA -responds and says

    The slavery that existed in the Caribbean was the worst ever. It became a genocidal exercise based on race executed for economic purposes.

    It is claimed that slavery existed elsewhere but cultures elsewhere allowed slaves to rise within the society to the point of becoming leaders and even-Kings

    European slavery was based on the racist philosophy of Whites and executed as such

  12. Bush tea Avatar
    Bush tea

    Micro Mock Engineer,

    ….try not to post when sleepy.

    2.45 AM?!? when the hell do you sleep? …and It shows in your above post.

    1. The point that you referenced did not have ANYTHING directly to do with the 11 -plus. It was all about the benefits or otherwise of mixing students of different academic aptitude in the same class room.

    Peter’s point being that the weak students stand to benefit (and some no doubt will)
    My point was that the distractions to the REALLY gifted students meant that they would then NOT reach their full potential.

    ….review this- now that you are fully awake.

    Secondly, you are exactly right about the poor efficiency of our education system.

    Where your analysis falls down, is in not recognising that the 20% success comes from the pioneering work done in the 1960’s by the same HC and other top schools, and by focusing our resources on the gifted. (Compare results in other jurisdictions)

    THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE 20% THAT WORKS, IT IS THE FAILURE TO DEVELOP THE OTHER 80%.

    Since you like examples to demonstrate your point, let us look at Sugar production.

    Our sugar industry is probably about 20% efficient too. We make one of the best sugars in the world and Mr Seale makes good rum.
    Do you notice that lots of people also suggest that sugar production is hopeless? Why is this?

    …Because we have no vision or leadership to develop the other 80% successfully.

    – The factories are decrepit and run down.
    – The work practices are 19th century
    – There is no vision
    – (it took them 30 years to realize that they could sell ‘specialty’ sugars)
    -etc etc

    Is the solution to stop growing sugar cane and give up 200 years of experience?

    Of course not…. there are people who make fortunes selling water – and you are telling Bush tea we can’t make a success of the best sugar in the world?

    In Education, we should leave HC and them alone.

    What we need is for other schools to become excellent in various areas of study.

    – A national sports academy- to fully develop our numerous talented sportsmen and women.
    -A school for the performing Arts- so Asiba could REALLY learn to sing 😉
    -A national college of music
    – From the days of Sir Gary, we should have had an international college of Cricket studies (if we had vision) instead we hired Australian coaches and sent our young players there….

    LEAVE THE 11 plus alone.
    Fix the REAL problem (the Ministry of Education)

    What zoning what?!?

    …and you well know that Bush tea is willing to tell how education could be fixed…

  13. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Bush Tea

    With respect to zoning, you will perhaps agree and remember that they used to be a voluntary sort of zoning in the 60’s and before.

    When I entered secondary school most CH CH boys and girls went to the Foundations schools, most folk from the north went to Alexandra or CP and the East Coast folk went to the Alleyne school.

    Over time Common entrance ensured that those with the highest mark went to HC & QC etc.

    I also was transferred to HC from Foundation after the first common entrance exam in 62. I often wonder if I would not have done better at school if I had remained at Foundation.

    HC is not for everyone. I particularly admire the camaraderie of old Combermerians, and I enjoyed the fellowship of the ex Foundation boys in the Challenor stand at cricket. There is no such ex HC fellowship. The folk with whom I went to school came from very diverse backgrounds, and this became evident when the bell rang.

  14. bussa Avatar
    bussa

    does having to sit an exam determines who is gifted form who is not in 2008 with well trained teachers I believe that they should spot the gifted ones in their class by the way if the gifted ones go to H.C why shuold the not so gifted do o,levels at the same age of the gifted ones it seems to me that the not so gifted are being asked to compete with the gifted which seems unfair . should kraigg brathwite have to g to trials for us to determine if he is gifted

  15. David Avatar
    David

    The more we listen to the debate about the 11 plus examination the more it confirms that our people have failed education. We have no physical development plan so we have created a problem where suburban Barbados shuttle their children to urban corridors to make it convenient for drop-off and pick-up, hence the traffic problem which some are using to justify changing scrapping the exam. We have no national youth/sports program to develop body and minds. We have no program to robustly develop the vocations which are viewed as non-intellectual etc. The Samuel Jackman Prescod Polyclinic is a failure because the intake of students represent those who should be elsewhere. We take BT’s point that we have built a small society on perceptions that to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer etc are the professions to aspire to if one wants to be considered successful.

    We have no strategy to respond to the obvious deepening lines of classism which makes it impossible for our decision makers to address the systemic underpinnings to some of these problems. We agree with commenters who suggest that scrapping the 11 plus exam will not be the panacea to resolving our educational problems. At the end of it all we still have no scientific analysis to assist us with this issue. We have an educational system with some components which work well how we remove those which don’t work well cannot be influenced by those who can shout the loudest.

    In the absence of the data which we hope Wickham can use his training and expertise, which the said educational system has provided him, to take this debate into a rhelm where causal issues maybe tackled. We often cite models at work in the US and the UK as a basis for dismantling systems which have worked for us. Our suggestion is that we should be careful not to approach these issues with a mindset that foreign is better.

  16. Bush tea Avatar
    Bush tea

    Cud dear people, let us think about this for a moment….

    GP, what is your point?…You are agreeing with me that HC is not for everyone. It is for those ‘geeks’ whose hobby is academics; who dream about Chaucer and who speak Greek to one another. These are people that actually understand Gauss Seidel and can actually solve six and eight simultaneous equations.

    Tell me what such a person would be doing at Foundation or Combermere or St Lucy Sec?

    This is SO obvious… (and Bush tea DOES understand Gauss Seidel…)

    Before 11- Plus, tests were done at various stages at all schools to identify and select these ‘geeks’ who were then channeled to HC, QC and where -ever….
    ..the dipper moved from C’mere to HC after a year too…

    I personally preferred this approach, but it is neither here or there – I suspect that the REAL reason it was changed to the 11 Plus was that influential persons were gerrymandering the system to arrange for special transfers for kith and kin…

    ..by the way-
    If you want to enjoy the camaraderie of C’mere you will find that you would be very welcomed (just don’t mention the other place when you come…)

    Bussa,

    I don’t know how to answer you. You seem to have a problem with testing…in 2008..

    Bussa, for your information, that is how we make determinations. BY TESTING. It is the best, fairest, easiest, most transparent way of making determinations…. about ANYTHING.
    How do we determine who is the fastest man on earth? the best tennis player? the best vollyball team? ….. BY TESTING!!! (competition)

    What teachers determine what?! Each teacher has scores of children to deal with – it is a challenge to remember the name -far less assess individuals properly just so…

    …after my results came back, my teachers were shocked…..(some honestly felt that Bush tea was a lost cause…)

    …and your second point is identical to mine….

    – having determines that the remaining 80% have DIFFERENT talents, the system should now do DIFFERENT tests to find out:-
    – Who are the potential Sports giants
    – Who are the Rihannas
    – Who are the performing artist
    -etc

    These should then be channeled to the appropriate TOP CLASS schools where their talent could be fine tuned (just like already happens with the academics…)

    …how is that hard to understand?!?

    Check out our national heroes. How many are academics?
    Can you imagine what Barbados would be like if people with the kind of talent that Sir Frank Walcott had, were fine tuned in the say way that Tom Adams or Sir LLoyd was?

    …or even Bussa?

  17. John Avatar
    John

    ASIBA -responds and says

    The slavery that existed in the Caribbean was the worst ever. It became a genocidal exercise based on race executed for economic purposes.

    It is claimed that slavery existed elsewhere but cultures elsewhere allowed slaves to rise within the society to the point of becoming leaders and even-Kings

    European slavery was based on the racist philosophy of Whites and executed as such
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Asiba

    Here is an example of slaves taken from the area of the Caucusus (Caucasians) to Egypt, (Africa) to serve as soldiers for their masters.

    A mamluk (Arabic: مملوك (singular), مماليك (plural), “owned”; also transliterated mameluk, mameluke, mamaluke, or mamluke) was a slave soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and the Ayyubid sultans during the Middle Ages. Over time, they became a powerful military caste, and on more than one occasion they seized power for themselves, for example ruling Egypt in the Mamluk Sultanate from 1250-1517.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk

    Genocide as applied to TransAtlantic slavery does not fit with reality.

    Cruel, inhumane, barbaric do, but Genocide does not.

    There is no way a slave owner seeking economic gain would allow the very source of the economic gain to die and do nothing to stop it.

    That is totally contrary to the capitalist system.

  18. bussa Avatar
    bussa

    so bush tea are you saying that the teachers at charles f broome primary cant say who will do well in the just concluded 11+ come on man also your analogy as it relates to testing and sports someone or team always start as the favourites because of past performances as for your experience with the exam and your teacher’s reaction you sound like if you were an upset and not a favourite

  19. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Bush tea
    Yes I am agreeing with you that HC is not for everyone.

    Actually most of the boys who went to school with me seemed normal and not ‘geeks’ at all. Nor did we dream about Chaucer and speak Greek to one another. LOL

    Most of us passed O levels without trying that hard. But there was no great effort to teach us. School was more about discipline and perhaps traditions.

    There was no nourishing as there was at Foundation. I had two teachers there that always inquired of my progress when ever we met-until they died. This was despite the fact that they only taught me one year.

    It must be hard for little boys who come from primary schools wherever ( where they are encouraged and motivated ) to enter HC where you were punished with “work cards” because you didn’t get an “A”

    My first son who also went to HC told me that he had a teacher who had taught at another secondary school before going to teach at HC, who confessed that he didn’t have to teach at HC as he had to elsewhere.

    No wonder that little Harry who comes from say St Simons, and does not have the parents who had benefited from secondary and tertiary education to motivate him falls regularly by the wayside. Many of these children need guidance.

    One of my contemporaries, who failed miserably at HC, but is successful in his business told me that he used to be hungry during his schooldays! His parents didn’t have it to give him.

    The sister of another contemporary told me his brother used to be always drowsy because he was taking antihistamines for his asthma. In those days asthma was not that common, nor did we have the potent agents we have today. But no one at HC tried to find out why boys were responding the way they did.

    The very best boys seemed to do well but many fell by the wayside academically. If they were good enough to be in the same cohort in lower first, why were they so far apart at fifth form? That’s why I believe HC is not for everyone.

    Re
    Before 11- Plus, tests were done at various stages at all schools to identify and select these ‘geeks’ who were then channeled to HC, QC and where -ever….
    ..the dipper moved from C’mere to HC after a year too…
    I personally preferred this approach, but it is neither here or there – I suspect that the REAL reason it was changed to the 11 Plus was that influential persons were gerrymandering the system to arrange for special transfers for kith and kin…

    I agree with you on the above too Bushtea.

    Re If you want to enjoy the camaraderie of C’mere you will find that you would be very welcomed.

    I know that Bush tea.Two of my best friends in my teens and twenties were Combermerians. Alas they are both now deceased.

  20. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    It was most unfortunate that Asiba used the word “genocidal” in his submission. That apart, the main thrust of his argument – if not in specifics – was sound.

    Black Africans owning black slaves was based in the main on power, wealth, control and tribal loyalty. These factors can be fluid and change over time, often in less than a decade.

    White ownership of black slaves was based on the perceived “superiority” of one race over another, this justified the practice. It was also reinforced by a belief that blacks were heathens not christian, therefore not like them..whites.

    This belief was “fixed” by race a different circumstance to black Africans owning black slaves which was more fluid. As a result the social interaction between whites and blacks changed for hundreds of years.

    The results of that period in history is evident even today.

    Sarah Anne Gill had a few slaves so what…even if that was the case. She was a private individual, are we to ascribe the moral values of the age on her shoulders.

    She was not a government or a state with the responsibility to legislate or legitimize the practice…which was done.

    What about the good ministers of Lodge in Barbados, they had slaves by the hundreds …those fine christian gentlemen.

    The argument that slavery was around before Africans were brought to the West Indies, is no argument.

    Major atrocities were committed long before Adolph Hitler gassed the Jews, does that make that despicable act any more acceptable?

  21. Bush tea Avatar
    Bush tea

    Bussa

    Even if teachers could predict performance with 100% reliability, would you be happy if a teacher failed your child because he or she judged that child to be below par?… while that said teacher passed your neighbor’s daughter for HC? (and even if you would be happy with that… do you think that the average parent would be???)

    In sports, can you recall how many times the ‘favourite’ failed to impress on the finish line?

    …and my personal experience…. I was a trouble tree…. even my parents knew that. Left to some of my teachers I may not have even been allowed to “waste the government’s money” by taking the GCE exams….

    …never failed one yet…

  22. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    Yardbroom:

    I get it now, you’ve explained it perfectly.

    It’s OK for a black man to enslave another human being because they’re really only bling, and it shouldn’t matter anyway, ‘cos he may probably only be subjugated for only ten years.

    Go shake your head, my friend, and come again, your contorted revisionism is addling your normally astute powers of reasoning.

  23. John Avatar
    John

    Yardbroom

    The argument that slavery was around before Africans were brought to the West Indies, is no argument.

    Major atrocities were committed long before Adolph Hitler gassed the Jews, does that make that despicable act any more acceptable?
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    The first paragraph is a fact, not an argument.

    The second paragraph contains a fact and a question.

    My answer to the question is NO it does not make Hitler’s dispicable act any less acceptable.

    I just watched a BBC documentary on CBC dealing with the development the idea of the white race being superior.

    It was used to justify the expansion of empire for both England and Germany in the 19th century, to salve consciences!

    The thinking justified 30 million Indians dead through famine and starvation under the British Raj. It salved consciences.

    It was given scientific justification through Darwin’s work in the 1860’s.

    It was used to explain the first death camp on Shark Island off the coast of German South West Africa, Namibia in the late 1890’s.

    It spawned Eugenics in the early 20th century in the US when millions of immigrants (my racially mixed ancestors included) were flooding in and racial mixing was feared.

    Many of the ideas developed in the US were adopted in Germany and carried to their horrible conclusion.

    I always heard that the first concentration camps were built by the English in South Africa and were used to defeat the Boer Commando during the Boer War 1899-1902.

    All Boer families were concentrated to deprive their men of support from the numerous spread out farms and to see sense and stop fighting.

    Lack of sanitary facilities and food caused many deaths of women and children in the camps.

    I do believe that there was racial thinking which went into many of the atrocities but I believe these atrocities would have taken place with or without the theories because man is a preetty badly flawed animal and gain was involved.

    The theory was used to salve consciences and justify actions.

    The theory did not send the English to Tasmania in the early 1800’s to wipe out the native population.

    The native population was wiped out and the theory was used to justify the reprehensible action.

    Perhaps the action was unintended, but the results of unintended actions are most often the more horrible and take the longest for an individual to explain to himself or herself.

  24. Micro-Mock Engineer Avatar
    Micro-Mock Engineer

    LOL BT… I concede, leave the 11-plus alone (… for now).

    But… as man, you really feel a school for performing arts would improve Asiba singing?

    ————————————————-
    Cut if you will, with Sleep’s dull knife,
    Each day to half its length, my friend…

  25. John Avatar
    John

    Yardbroom

    Sarah Anne Gill had a few slaves so what…even if that was the case. She was a private individual, are we to ascribe the moral values of the age on her shoulders.

    She was not a government or a state with the responsibility to legislate or legitimize the practice…which was done.

    What about the good ministers of Lodge in Barbados, they had slaves by the hundreds …those fine christian gentlemen.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    There were 6000 plus individuals who made slave returns in Barbados in 1817.

    Ten percent were either free negroes or free mulattoes, Sarah Ann Gill included.

    I can check these facts again, in fact any one can now that the returns are on line at ancestry.com.

    There is a yearly subscription but they are all there as far as I can see.

    There are many Ann Gill’s who made returns, but only one who is also described as a free mulatto and only one who is described as the executor of the estate of her husband, Alexander Gill, who was also a free negro who in life, also owned slaves.

    “Free” People from all walks of life owned slaves because it was legal and a way of life. At the time it was both right and a right, now it is neither.

    There is a return made by John Nicholas Ganson of four slaves, Neddy, 50, Sarah, 22, Elizabeth 8, and John, 5.

    All four slaves are described as Domestic.

    The stunning thing for me was that the return was made on behalf of the Moravian Society.

    This does not detract in any way from the work done by the Moravians.

    It brings home the point that owning slaves prior to emancipation is what “free” people did routinely, not because they were white, black or mulatto but because the law of land allowed it.

    Returns of Lunatics and Invalids were also made because Lunatics and Invalids owned slaves.

    Most times they were made by their representatives.

    I am not sure what you mean by “Ministers of Lodge”, I assume you mean church, and the Anglican church specifically.

    In their private capacity reverends made returns as well. There would have been a few reverends making returns depending on their private circumstances.

    I did not come across any returns made on behalf of the actual Anglican Church but there are returns for two plantations made on behalf of the SPG.

    “The return of Forster Clarke of slaves the property of the Honourable and Reverend Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to whom the said Forster Clarke is attorney”

    College was one plantation and had 119 slaves in 1817, the other was Uphill which had 215 slaves at the time. I believe Uphill is Society and College is Codrington College.

    The attorneys for these two plantations routinely made reports on conditions on the Society’s properties in Barbados.

    I forget the name of the author but the title of a book which a historian wrote to publish his work on these SPG records is called “Of Bondsmen and Bishops”.

    I believe it is out of print but if you can get your hands on it, it is worth reading.

    To judge our ancestors by today’s standards and not understand what the standards of the day were makes for flawed judgments.

    It creates bitterness in our hearts because we cannot do anything to right the wrongs of the past.

    The SPG recently made a public apology for their part in slavery.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_the_Propagation_of_the_Gospel_in_Foreign_Parts

    It doesn’t do much for the hundreds of slaves who toiled and died on their plantations for more than 100 years prior to emancipation but it does serve a purpose.

  26. Micro-Mock Engineer Avatar
    Micro-Mock Engineer

    “Compare results in other jurisdictions’”
    ——————————————————–

    …ok, it is probably not a bad idea to compare results in other jurisdictions that do not use a Common Entrance Exam as the basis for secondary school allocation.

    I’ll use the UN’s Education Index for comparison – http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/7.html. For good measure and general information lets also include each country’s economic and human development record… i.e. GDP per capita and UN Human Development Index (HDI)

    The Education Index may not be the best indicator, but feel free to substitute your own measures.

    **Denmark**
    System description – http://pub.uvm.dk/2008/facts/kap01.html#kap01
    Education Index – 0.993
    GDP per capita – $37,392
    HDI – 0.949

    **Spain**
    System description – http://www.inem.es/inem/relint/referNet/pdfs/estructuraseningles.pdf
    Education Index – 0.987
    GDP per capita – $30,120
    HDI – 0.949

    **Sweden**
    System description – http://www.estia.educ.goteborg.se/sv-estia/edu/edu_sys3.html
    Education Index – 0.978
    GDP per capita – $36,494
    HDI – 0.956

    …actually, with the notable exception of Australia (who do have an OPTIONAL Selective Placement Test as part of their widely acclaimed educational system… and who quite frankly don’t help my argument at all… LOL) you’d be hard-pressed to find a Common Entrance Exam or anything even remotely resembling it in most of the countries that outperform Barbados on the UN Education and Human Development Indices.

    By the way, here is how Barbados stacks up:
    Education Index – 0.956
    GDP per capita – $19,347
    HDI – 0.892

    Now tell me again… is the 11-plus exam as indispensable as some would have us believe?

    BUT dat Australia system look real interesting doh… anybody know more about how it works?

  27. Barbados » Should We Hire Peter Wickham As A Consultant In Education?

    […] Should We Hire Peter Wickham As A Consultant In Education?Submitted by Bush tea It seems that Barbados’s resident expert on everything from homosexuality, to God and now China has turned his attention to the 11 plus exam and specifically to its abolition. It seems that every day now, … […]

  28. bussa Avatar
    bussa

    bush if what you are saying was to happen where the teacher favours one child from the next over a period of time that teacher will be exposed because sending a dummy to h.c he would be still a dummy dont get me wrong i have no problem with testing but if trying to avoid that problem is the only reason we are sticking with the common entrance then we have gone no where as a people another thing what is the definition of geek because if h.c is for that type of student are you telling me that for a small population like Barbados we can produce over 200 “geeks” every year wow

  29. John Avatar
    John

    In time, our descendants will be tempted to judge us as we seek to judge our ancestors.

  30. Gabriel the Horn Blower Avatar
    Gabriel the Horn Blower

    so… Micro Mock Engineer (along with Peter Wickham and many others) believes that all will be well IF ONLY we abolish the 11+!

    Forget about …
    – teacher selection, training and continuous education,
    – assessment improvement,
    – educational materials improvement
    – codes of practice for teachers along with systems of appraisal,
    – smaller schools and smaller class sizes,
    – learning disabilty intervention and remedial education,
    – curriculum enlargement and enhancement (including skills training),
    – school administration improvement (including student disciplinary measures and security issues),
    – facilities improvement,
    – school location rationalisation to minimise travel times and costs,
    etc.

    Of course, we will not discuss the ultimate issue of the nexus between education transformation and wider socio-economic transformation. In other words, do we really want happy, informed, skilled, self-motivated graduates to enter a 19th century capitalist economic structure that desires only automatons and impulsive consumers?

    Abolishing the 11+ is just so easy, its gets rid the ‘problem’ that really bothers us – the existence of HC, QC and C’mere.

  31. Edoe Eater Avatar
    Edoe Eater

    Gabriel

    Much of what you listed is being done thanks to the initiatives conceptualised and started by the Hon Mia A Mottley. These initiatives are popularly called EDUTECH.

  32. ROBOT Avatar
    ROBOT

    It doesn’t do much for the hundreds of slaves who toiled and died on their plantations for more than 100 years prior to emancipation but it does serve a purpose.

    HUNDREDS ?????
    HUNDREDS OF SLAVES.

    –Give me the truth !

  33. Micro-Mock Engineer Avatar
    Micro-Mock Engineer

    “so… Micro Mock Engineer (along with Peter Wickham and many others) believes that all will be well IF ONLY we abolish the 11+!”
    ———————————————————–

    Au contraire Gabe… my exact words were “leave the 11-plus alone (… for now)”.

    Like you , I think the focus on the 11-plus is misguided. Evaluate the entire system and let the fate of the 11-plus be decided in the scheme of an overall plan.

    You have made some otherwise excellent points… I’m with you 99.91042% 🙂

  34. John Avatar
    John

    Robot

    It doesn’t do much for the hundreds of slaves who toiled and died on their plantations for more than 100 years prior to emancipation but it does serve a purpose.

    HUNDREDS ?????
    HUNDREDS OF SLAVES.

    –Give me the truth !
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I don’t know the truth.

    I don’t want to guess how many died over the period for which SPG owned slaves and even if I did want to, I would get a wrong answer.

    If you want the truth you would have to go to the SPG to get access to its records of slave deaths for each year it owned slaves.

    Here are some facts however, that might help in getting to an estimate.

    In the period between the 1832 return and the 1834 return there were 32 births and 19 deaths. (Source Ancestry.com returns)

    It would be misleading to take the 19 deaths over this two year period as being representative of the death rate and try to extrapolate back to 1710 when the SPG received the two plantations with slaves from the executors of Christopher Codrington’s will.

    Some years may have been higher, some lower.

    If this figure were used, 1178 deaths over the period 1710 to 1834 would have occurred, ie more than 11 hundred for the period which SPG owned slaves in Barbados!!

    Here is an extract from what Wikepedia says to illustrate.

    “It relied on a steady new stream of slaves from West Africa as, by 1740, thirty years after the Church took over, four out of every 10 slaves bought by the plantation died within three years. This contrasted with some Southern US plantations where the death rate was lower, suggesting a deliberate “work to death” policy was in operation, as was commonly the case in the West Indies and South America.[1]

    On the question of whether the Plantation operated a “work to death” policy, Adam Hochschild makes the point (Bury the Chains, p63) …”in 1746 one third of Africans died within three years of arrival in West Indies, from the ordeal of the middle passage, and the shock of adjusting to the new life, foods, and diseases.”

    There is no evidence that on the Codrington plantation harsh treatment of slaves by its managers was the cause of the high death rate.

    Adam Hochschild goes on to say, “At Codrington, as throughout the Caribbean, new slaves from Africa were first “seasoned” for three years, receiving extra food and light work assignments. Slaves were vulnerable during this early traumatic period when they were most likely to die of disease, to run away… or to commit suicide. If you survived those three years, you were regarded as ready for the hardest labour.”

  35. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    It is obvious without much elaboration; that the enslavement of one human being by another, is a reprehensible act. That act is not any less reprehensible, when the parties are of the same race…African and black.

    To suggest that I felt another human being could be thought of as “bling” is not worthy of serious attention…I will not pursue it.

    The problem in this spin-off discussion is that certain individuals say slavery was wrong, it was bad and then they insert caveats.

    We cannot judge the situation then in today’s times they say. Slavery was not abolished that long ago, we are not speaking about the middle ages.

    They were plenty of people at the time, who acknowledged that the enslavement of Africans to work in the West Indies was barbaric. To suggest people of the time were not aware of its barbarity and cruelty is nonsense. Further that they were not morally advanced enough to understand that, is beyond comprehension.

    Africans were enslaved and brought to the West Indies and the practice allowed to continue. In the main because Europeans saw the Africans as inferior. Of course there was an economic element but the justification was how black Africans were perceived. The Laws reinforced this perception.

    One commentator here, once said “it was not all that bad”

    I say to him, and will gently say to Robot death was sometimes the best part, as it was a release from hell on earth.

    In this Barbados:

    “The propensity for slaves to commit suicide was related to the torture and mutilation they were sometimes subjected to. Father Antoine Biet described how one planter had a slave whipped by other Negroes repeatedly for seven days. On the eighth day he had one of the slaves’s ears cut off and roasted. The black was then made to eat his ear.”

    This was from a man who was there at the time, an historical account.

    One commenter here” once said: “However, I learnt a while ago to take most of what I am told with a pinch of salt, in the case of slavery, a tablespoon of salt.”

    No one is more difficult to convince of historical truths, as those who do not wish to be convinced.

    I will leave others to judge the merits of my case.

  36. Gabriel the Horn Blower Avatar
    Gabriel the Horn Blower

    MME
    OK but 99.91042% of the time? Hmm 3 standard deviations, very small chance of a type II error?

    Edoe Eater

    yes the Edutech program makes reference to some of these issues but not much else…just a lot of words.

  37. John Avatar
    John

    Africans were enslaved and brought to the West Indies and the practice allowed to continue. In the main because Europeans saw the Africans as inferior. Of course there was an economic element but the justification was how black Africans were perceived. The Laws reinforced this perception.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Yardbroom

    I just cannot imagine going to the expense and trouble of forcibly relocating and degrading someone just because that person is considered to be inferior to you.

    There has to be economic gain so I believe slaves were brought from Africa because it made economic sense …. but only for a time.

    Sensibilities that were inflamed and consciences that could not come to terms with the barbaric nature were salved by the Bible.

    The owners of slaves found a way to rationalise slavery, call themselves christians and most importantly make a profit.

    The Bible is replete with instances where it was quite acceptable to own slaves.

    I’ll bet that the polygamist sect in America we read about justifies its position with passages of scripture which you or I could not argue against.

    The abolitionist movement took almost 50 years to achieve its objectives. I don’t even think that it was all due to the efforts of this movement that abolition was achieved.

    I believe it had more to do with the fact that it had become uneconomical. Sounds harsh, but that’s what I understand Eric Williams thesis was in his book, Capitalism and Slavery. I need to read it when I get a chance.

    The slave population in Barbados was about 40,000 in 1687. The large profits I have read were made in the 1600’s. Most of the people who made those profits then moved on the America because there was more to be made.

    South Carolina was being colonised in the 1660’s out of Barbados. Barbadians who could, were relocating, with there slaves.

    While the white population had fallen slightly by 1817 the slave population had risen to over 80,000.

    That meant for the slave owner, mouths to feed and housing and care for the sick and elderly to be provided.

    There were some centenerians in the slave returns, many over 80, invalids, lepers and those who could not work, sometimes referred to in the returns as superannuated.

    This could never make economic sense in the long term.

    There was also the important question of control and control costs money in terms of garrisoning the island with troops.

    I would agree that perceptions of Europeans at the end of slavery were changing and the Bible was being replaced by science as a means to justify the expansion of empire at the expense of indiginous peoples.

    These changing perceptions gave rise to the racist theories which you describe and made it possible for far more horrendous atrocities than slavery to be committed and justified.

    The experience of slavery also assisted.

    Armed with Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest the whole question of life and death became open for exploration.

    I do think there is merit in this spin-off discussion because we are looking back at our ancestors just as our descendants will one day look back at us.

    What we leave for them in terms of an education system that works, debts that they can repay etc will be used to judge how we performed when we were at the tiller.

    It won’t make any difference to us then because we will be dead, but it will to them.

    I’ll try and wind down now!!

    I realise I have brought some of my findings to the table which are at variance with conventional wisdom and which I could have kept silent about but I know that if I am to be set right, it will be on the blogs.

  38. GoWEB Avatar
    GoWEB

    I agree with Mr. Wickam, The 11+ needs to go. For a country that calls Education it;s greatest asset, this whole nonsense about “Good Schools” and “Bad Schools” has no logic. Instead of building flyover and ferrying cars, let children go to the school closest to them and MAINTAIN the highest level of education in ALL the schools.

  39. John Avatar
    John

    Yardbroom

    Father Biet visited Barbados in 1654.

    At the time, and up to the time it was abolished in the early 1800’s here is how people convicted of treason were dispatched.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered

    I do not doubt the account Father Biet gives.

    If you can stomach the method of execution used for treason in the wikipedia reference, you will appreciate that the 1650’s was a pretty cruel time and the English and French pretty cruel people.

    I believe I read somewhere that this punishment was used on the ring leaders in the indentured servants’ uprising in the 1650’s (I think) and then again on the ring leaders of slave disturbances that followed until 1702 when they apparently ceased.

    The next was in 1816. By then it seems the method of execution had been abolished.

    Perhaps our differences stem from the fact that we are speaking of different times in slavery.

  40. Justice Avatar
    Justice

    Go Web,

    Would that be the same way they go to the primary school nearest them now?

  41. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    John
    The slave to which Father Biet refer’s was “not” convicted of treason.

    Even today treason in some countries warrants the death penalty.

    The truth must always be told, for in the telling of truth, we will set ourselves free. I owe it to the silent voices, of those whose pain we can only imagine.

    The silence that they endured gives me courage to speak.
    I will now rest my hand on the hoe, plant my bare feet in the earth, and reflect awhile, as the setting sun goes down behind the mountain, I am at peace.

  42. John Avatar
    John

    … me too.

  43. Bush tea Avatar
    Bush tea

    Micro Mock Engineer,

    …what kind of big foot trick you trying to pull on Bush tea?

    ..I just floated the question of comparing different jurisdictions (I just wanted to use a big word like georgeofstgeorge 😉 ) and you actually went of and researched the information….?!?

    …you have to be a HC geek…..

    Anyhow, don’t come with that old trick with Bush tea….

    How do you expect to use comparisons of countries whose GDP per capita are almost TWICE that of Barbados?

    In fact; that these countries are so much wealthier and yet only slightly better in education index would suggest that Barbados is much more efficient (11 plus and streaming??) that they are.

    If we look at a measure such as “Education index per dollar of GDP per capita” – Barbados wins hands down…. thanks for the data…

    …as for Australia, check out their streaming program for sports (Talent ID). It starts at age 6. We had someone here last year doing a pilot in our schools. (check out Australia’s dominance in world sports and the value of their domestic sports business)

    …Brings me to my answer to Bussa about the need for a place for 200 geeks per year.

    ARE YOU KIDDING BUSSA?

    There are more that 200 per year worth of geeks bout here. …can you imagine what Micro Mock Engineer’s child would be like? and those of georgeofstgeorge? and Gabriel??

    ..and bussa, why you trying to trick Bush tea too?
    I did NOT say that the teacher would ” favour one child over the next..’ I actually said that PARENTS would not trust the teacher when a decision (in good faith) went against their child….
    With the objective test, there is no one to blame but themselves…. the only pity is that parents do not continue to pay the kind of interest in their children after the 11 plus exam… that they do before.

  44. Micro-Mock Engineer Avatar
    Micro-Mock Engineer

    BT,

    Look how you twist (w)rong my data doh…

    …wha kinda lawer/economist tricks is dat?

    By the way… I have started a periodic report on my “Endgame” portfolio of investments in the “Responding To The Challenges Of Expensive Energy” thread.

    See what fancy tricks you could work pun dem numbers… 🙂

  45. Asiba-The Buffalo Soldier-still too much FAT on the road Avatar
    Asiba-The Buffalo Soldier-still too much FAT on the road

    I do not intend to get bogged down on debating whether or not slavery existed in other parts of the world or not. The Caribbean experience is a unique one based on the race component and this is an undeniable fact,

    When I speak of slavery,I am speaking also to what has developed in the aftermath and I am stating that slavery or what happened during the experience is at the basis of all the social issues with which we are confronted today. From FAT overweight individuals to high prices to delinquency in the schools to overdress politicians in suits and ties in a hot tropical climate.-(inappropiate dress) clearly based on imitation

    I talk about the big house syndrome before so lets look at at overweight individuals:–mypet subject-“Too Much FAT on the Road “and all that

    There was a time when individuals in Barbados drank substances to make them FAT that is to put on weight. The idea of being FAT was associated with being prosperous, a clear imitation of the lazy over fed whites who drank and eat sumptously, lived in the great house and , came from cold England dressed in a jacket and tie. Hence the way we dress.
    I saw some pictures of old Barbados where men on the streets are liming in suits , yes suits in Barbados.-crazy.

    While I am at it , there was a time in Barbados when people bathed one day a week–a clear imitation of english ways.

    Every thing we do has been influenced by the slave experience. The way we think about others is a demonstration. There was a time when we discriminated against differently abled persons calling them by all sorts of names. We looked down on people from the islands. We look down on each other. “He aint nobody.” “He aint come from nowhere.” Confidence in our selves has been undermined by the slave experience. Whites had to pursue strategies to make us doubt ourselves, make us believe that we could do nothing , achieve nothing in order to control us -a large Black population

    When the 11 plus exam is used to reinforce all these negatives of superiority and inferiority, competition, the best and all that crap we have a major problem. The problem is not the 11 plus but the way it is used by individuals who possess the colonial mentality and to use a cliche—-who wants to maintain the status quo.

    The psychological damage done during slavery to Black PEOPLE appears to be irreversible but it is reversible: WE HAVE TO TEACH OUR HISTORY-WE MUST —WE HAVE TO TEACH IT now

    The sad thing about it is that we have not fully begun to address this issue. The politicians and those with the knowledge are not prepare to sacrifice anything to address this situation.

    More to come………….

  46. Asiba-The Buffalo Soldier-still too much FAT on the road Avatar
    Asiba-The Buffalo Soldier-still too much FAT on the road

    The African and the European come from different worlds and these worlds have shaped what we have become as a people.

    AFRICA : Bright and sunny , lots of space to move around. Subsistence living no need to hoard-just go out and hunt-because the earth is the fullness.

    EUROPE: Cold and dark and winter driven. The winter has shaped the mind of the european . when that winter hits , you better be housed in appropriate housing with stocks of food andthings to keep you warm. You better be selfish about your hoarding and not let the other fellow gain advantage over you by getting more than you so that he could control you. If there is not enough =go out and explore and exploit, trample others and gain control over them. Fight hard, conquer many and become the king or queen because of your riches obtained from
    robbing many

    The mind of the european has been shaped in this way. We live in a white man world and we are a cursed race in the white mans world -cursed by the whiteman

  47. Asiba-The Buffalo Soldier-still too much FAT on the road Avatar
    Asiba-The Buffalo Soldier-still too much FAT on the road

    JOHN WRITES
    The Bible is replete with instances where it was quite acceptable to own slaves.
    ————————————–
    ASIBA ASKS

    which Bible
    written by who
    translated by who
    king james ?

  48. Thewhiterabbit Avatar
    Thewhiterabbit

    Get rid of the 11+!!!!!! First, one must ask how taking one test on one day can adequately evaluate anything? Were you at your best on that day? As a young woman were you suffering menstrual problems, or wondering what all that blood was all about down there that you never saw before? Second, the real problem here is the mindless adherence to the British notion of class hierarchy in which the “best” go the “best” schools, and on down from there. Scrap 11+ but do it by making all secondary schools the same. Students after primary school would go to their nearest secondary school. Today that seems unworkable because some “best” students would have to attend the Dodds Preparatory School at the top of Horse Hill in St. Joseph. Thewhiterabbit predicts that in less than one year all schools would even out when the parents of the “best” demanded good education at their local secondary school. Third, if students went to their local secondary school consider how much less traffic there would be on the roads (you do note, of course, how much less traffic there is when school is not in session) and consider how much less gasoline and diesel would be wasted by cars sitting in endless lines of non-moving traffic, and how much less foreign exchange would go out to pay for that wasted fuel. I wonder if the Harrisonians and Combermerians that run this country could even consider the egalitarian levelling that would occur if 11+ were eliminated and the “best” schools became just schools, and we all became just Bajans instead of whatever-school-you-went-to’s?

  49. Edoe Eater Avatar
    Edoe Eater

    “Scrap 11+ but do it by making all secondary schools the same”

    “…attend the Dodds Preparatory School at the top of Horse Hill in St. Joseph”

    What does this mean? How are schools different? The teachers have the same qualifications, the students use the same books, they follow the same curriculum, are provided with the same facilities .

    Why refer to Grantley Adams School in such derogatory terms?

    Thewhiterabbit is a damned hypocrite who while claiming all should be equal is conveniently blind to the fact that in fact all are equal and looks down at certain schools because those he/she really thinks are “better” don’t attend those same schools.

    This fraud continues – “Thewhiterabbit predicts that in less than one year all schools would even out when the parents of the “best” demanded good education at their local secondary school.” So the the parents of the “other” children don’t presently care about education, are not demanding good education for their children and the Government of Barbados has been ignoring them for the last 50 years. Only when those whose children now attend Combermere complain will anything be done!

    By the way, Dr Estwick (Minister of Health) went to Princess Margaret, Chris Sinckler (Ministers of Foreign Affairs) and Michael Lashley(Minister of Housing) both went to the Garrison Secondary, Dennis Kellman and Haynesly Benn (Minister of Agriculture) attended CP, Ronald Jones (Minister of Education) attended the Washington High School, and Steve Blackett (Minister of Culture) attended St. Leonards.

  50. ex QC student Avatar
    ex QC student

    There needs to be some way to evaluate children prior to the move to secondary school.
    The problem with the 11+ as it is now, is that it is the only stage in a Barbadians life where there is no chance of redemption. There is no limit to how many times we can sit for our drivers licence, our CXC’s, our exams to qualify at university. Yet at 11 years old the results of a single exam will determine if everyone will judge you to be a HC geek or whatever. Even people who commit crimes can serve their time and after staying ‘clean’ for a set time can have their records expunged. It is our mental slavery to the idea that a child from HC is a geek and one from another school will end up at Dodds that we must change. We must ensure that all children reach their potential, whether it be as doctor or plumber. It is harder to get a good plumber in Bim than a good doctor.

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