There has been the usual chatter this week in response to yet another incident of student on teacher violence at a secondary school. Whether it is the slashing of tyres of a teacher, spitting on a teacher, pushing a teacher down a flight of stairs, refusing to pick up the wrapper, the bottomline is that teachers and other actors in the education system must lead. All we hear from the Minister responsible Ronald Jones, talk show puppets like Peter Wickham, union officials et al is the inflammatory rhetoric.

Has the time come for us to select a minister of education who is intimately familiar with raising children? Should we give credence to a talk show host who is devoid of the concept of the personal commitment humankind should have to procreation?   Has the time come to thank Jones for his service and to give another person with a different skillset a chance to ‘stabilize’ the education system? All agree – even the minister responsible – that we have a serious problem to solve. And by his mouthings he appears to be clueless about how to constructively engage the issues. BU recalls Jones’ directive a couple years ago that mobile devices MUST not be brought to the school complex. A directive which was largely ignored. BU recalls that Jones was negligent in how he managed the Alexandra mess. He sat on a report for months until the matter escalated and resulted in scarce public dollars having to be approved by the prime minister to band aide the matter in a PR exercise. Several more cases can be cited to support the ineffectiveness of the ministry of education under Jones’ leadership. The exodus of experienced teachers is another that in large part is as a result of poor management and the political appointment of Karen Best as chief education officer.

Any good parent will tell you the responsibility of parenting is serious business. It calls for relationship building with the offspring –  nurturing and fostering respect, creating an environment to motivate them to give of their best, being honest with them and encouraging them to be sensibly curious, the list is long. Are we happy the same approach required of that is good parents within the home is being translated to the school system? BU respectfully suggest NO!

The BU household watched the following video of the well know Mac Fingall. Some things we will not agree with him and this is to be expected. This is a man who has walked the talk in his role as a teacher at the Lodge School and as a social activist in the community. His involvement in the Lodge School movement to reinstate it as a preferred learning institution as well as the success of the athletics program under his leadership is the stuff folkore is made. As a country many of the social ills which afflict our little country can be tracked to weak leadership. The good news is that our small size allows us to create an action plan to pull it back over a three to five year period. The bad news is that we need to get the political directorate to agree. The great irony exposed by our system of government is that the political class has become the albatross around the necks of its citizens. Has the time come for the citizenry to exact a pound of flesh like Shylock? He too was incensed when Antonio spat on him, physically abused him …