With many of the schools on the island being under construction or renovation currently, as nationals we are endowed with a sense of pride and gratitude to realise that our descendents will have the chance to attend well-equipped centres of learning, thanks to the UK’s grant of 60 million pounds to the Anguilla Programme. Attending new, refurbished schools is a golden opportunity that I imagine many of our young ones look forward to.
Our children in communities all around the island, and the children that would come after them, are poised to partake of great learning experiences in efficient classrooms — while enjoying the conveniences of modern school ergonomics. And whether they are in South Hill, or The Valley, Stoney Ground or East End, or whether they would benefit from the novelty of a remodeled Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive, these scholars would do well to learn what the principles of true schooling really are.
Many of our children, nowadays, are taking school and schooling for granted. While some view school as a place at which they obtain education as an indispensible necessity that they would require for every facet of future life, others just drift through school with no defined purpose. Generally, these are they who defy school rules; who find it difficult to settle down in the classroom, no matter how much you beg them to. These are they who use their tongues to blurt out disrespectful insults to their teachers and their peers. This is painfully deplorable behaviour, to say the least.
The time has long gone when school, as an institution of learning, was also an institution of discipline. However, with the advent of the 1989 Geneva Convention of the Rights of the Child, the kind of discipline that used to be measured out say, twenty years ago, no longer exists. As a result, children/scholars today are allowed to escape the punitive measures that were accorded scholars of the past who would be involved in insolent behaviour.
The 1989 Geneva Convention of the Rights of the Child stipulates in Article 28 (2): “State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with a child’s human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.” The concern here would be: what level of discipline runs counter to a child’s dignity; or at what point does school discipline begin to contravene the Convention.
As we take a look at school discipline, as it was, we examine a definition found in K12academics.com: “School discipline is a system of rules, punishments, and behavioural strategies appropriate to the regulation of children and the maintenance of order in schools.” The key words here are “the maintenance of order in schools”. The onus lies on the shoulders of teachers and parents to aim at controlling the obscene behaviour that prevails in our schools.
When such behaviour goes unheeded, or when defiant practices are winked at, it is generally the student that suffers. And that suffering might not be evident immediately after defiant acts are committed, but the consequences of such behaviour might be likely to surface in the future. Sadly, though, it’s not only the insubordinate scholar who would suffer, but a part of the community or the family where he or she comes from may bear the consequences of his or her actions as well.
We have established that school must be a place of discipline. By its traditional nature, “school” meant “discipline”. In order for our scholars to get the most out of their school experience, elements such as bullying, disrespect for teachers and peers, misconduct on school buses, the mindset behind wearing school uniform in a vagabond-like manner, as well as the practice of intimate mingling and fondling of fellow-scholars of the opposite sex on school property, must be stamped out. These traits are disruptive to the teaching and learning process.
It is evident that these kinds of behaviour are more prevalent in our secondary school than in our primary schools. In her recent Fifth Form Graduation Address, Principal Rita Celestine Carty of the ALHCS referred to the graduates as those who had “stretched” the school’s administration:
“You would repeat the VIBES, and would be led in the affirmation of the Virtues,” she declared. “But at times confusion would break out among you. You had us scratching our heads, wondering what should be done next to help you to behave well. We had uncovered unresolved, but hopefully not ‘unresolvable’, personal issues and we tried every way to help. Although your fourth year unfolded relatively smoothly, in year five everything resurfaced, and we were at it again. Problems that no one would imagine schoolchildren would face were yours, and we tried to help you to navigate through them. Class of 2020, you stretched us until we thought that there would be no more elasticity left.”
The behaviour of which Mrs. Carty spoke should not be tolerated in school. To confront such behaviour, appropriate disciplinary measures must be applied. However, the question is: “Can such measures be applied? Can misbehaving scholars be punished in such a manner that such punitive measures would deter others from propagating such conduct? Or do teachers and parents conform to the norms of the 1989 Geneva Convention and be themselves harassed by the behaviour of their delinquent youth?
I stand to thank Mrs. Carty for exercising the forbearance that she has been called to demonstrate in dealing with the troubles at the ALHCS. And we, as a community, are indebted to her for her tolerance. We must hold up her hand and encourage her in her dedicated work and labour of love. We do applaud her tenacity and patience in dealing with troublesome scholars.
But, what about the regimented nature of school as it used to be? Didn’t we have more to gain by that kind of approach to our schooling? Or have we lost it all to the Geneva Convention? Let us, the Anguillian community, realise that the youth of today are the adults of tomorrow and their characters will determine the quality of our future societies. Therefore, let us do whatever it takes to properly groom the character of our scholars.
