Dear Editor,

This week has been filled with a plethora of activities, including Read Across Jamaica Day and Teachers’ Day, and it is very pleasing to see a number of stakeholders participating in the events. What is most significant, for me, though, is that this week also happens to be Education Week.Education, for many, involves the academic achievements and intellectual capacities of individuals. In my view, education starts the very first day a child is born, when he/she becomes able to distinguish the difference between a smile and a frown, a mild tone and a sharp one, or good and bad gestures.It begins in the very home a child comes out of, and later extends to the community where the child will begin to adopt the normative values and attitudes of society.Sadly, in contemporary society, these values and attitudes have degenerated so much that it ends in a situation where children are left virtually on their own. There is not that second eye to correct a child and assist in sending them on the right path.We have, to an extent, neglected the importance of education. Children are no longer courteous, social graces have been placed on the back burner, and the camaraderie within communities has diminished, perhaps never to return.As we celebrate Education Week, I encourage us all to train up a child in the way he should grow, so that when he gets old he will not depart from it.We want to encourage the children of today to do well in school and to master the art and science of technology, as among them we are sometimes able to detect the teachers, lawyers, doctors, law enforcement officers of tomorrow.At the same time, let us not forget to instil the right values and attitudes in them while we pave the path for them to be empowered to achieve their fullest potential. 

Kimberley Thompson

Youth Advocate

Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network

kimberleythompson81@yahoo.com