So the 2016/17 academic year comes to an end tomorrow. There have already been a slew of graduations and prize-giving ceremonies, and the schedule continues. Few of the prizes awarded will be for best behaviour and other character-driven reasons, such as the most helpful student and such the like. But most of the best behaviour awards will be subjectively chosen. Many of them will be the teacher’s pet.

Education in Jamaica should be tailored to suit our needs. It should be more character-driven than information-driven. In this technological age much of the information can be gained electronically from the Internet. The staff of the schools should be teaching character training and teaching the students how to live together.

As Jamaicans we all need to look at how we got to this point in our history, in terms of national values, attitudes and behaviour, and how we can move on from here. If we do not do this we will continue to go in circles in Jamaica in terms of dysfunctional behaviour that leads to crime and violence, even while we develop physically. But if there is not a certain amount of happiness and contentment, then having more things will all be in vain.

Exactly 25 years ago, today, I started having camps for Roman Catholic high school students who do not go to Roman Catholic schools. End-of-term day in 1992 was July 3. I have had boys’ camps and girls’ camps (whenever possible) separately since 1992. I separate them for reasons of control, and in any case I know my limitations. It is the only way that I can manage youngsters. Good luck to those who can control a mixed camp of teenagers.

While I have taught the Roman Catholic faith extensively on the camps, we have also had a lot of fun playing games and going to the beach. For example, last year we were in Port Antonio with the boys and we had 12 classes on the rudiments of Roman Catholic teaching over the week that we were on camp. Yet we went to the beach five times and to Reach Falls once. And there was also time throughout the duration of the camp to play football.

What I have found is that it is impossible to have camps in Jamaica for a specific cause and not deal with the social aspects at the same time. This is the reality in Jamaica. And there are the things that should be dealt with to stop the periodic outbreaks in violence. We really need to change the way we relate to one another.

We need to have programmes that ensure that everyone has a certain amount of control over their destinies. And this can only come from co-operative businesses and other types of business partnerships at every level of the society. It is way past the time that people are either forced to remain poor so that they will always be dependent, or handed the goods of this world in a way that makes them indebted for life to others.

It is said that a few sinister people foment the violence and that those who carry out the acts are only the ‘foot soldiers’ in a much bigger organisation. But it would not be attractive to so many ‘foot soldiers’ if something was not fundamentally wrong in the society. And there is also something fundamentally wrong when individuals can be paid to force others unwillingly into crime and violence.

Making connections between action and reaction is something that all children should learn. True, sometimes youngsters have to learn the hard way. Here are a few far-fetched examples to train people to think.

There is, for example, a connection between cutting lawns and freeing the pet animals of ticks and fleas. Some will, no doubt, argue that on this one they are ‘lost’. But just about all insects thrive in any form of grass or weeds and cutting grass reduces the insect population to the benefit of hairy and feathered domestic animals.

Others fail to make the connection between littering the streets and floods. The connection is that when the rains come the litter floats in the water and ends up in the gullies, which blocks the drains and causes flooding. What about the connection between birds and trees, on the one hand, and ice cream on the other? Here I am not talking about flavours that comes from fruits, which in any case would not explain the birds.

Milk that makes ice cream comes from cows who are many times kept alive by the birds who feed on the insects that plague them. In the rural areas, one sees birds perched on the cows while they pick off the insects. The birds need trees to live in. Without the trees the birds disappear; without the birds the cows can die from tick infestation, as not every farmer can afford pesticides. And if the cows die then there is no milk, and if there is no milk there is no ice cream.

The above exercise could teach youngsters that everything they do causes a reaction. And from there we can tell them that, in using the same method, there is a connection between crime and violence and how Jamaican adults go about having sexual intercourse. Unstable relationships such as one night stands and so on can lead to unwanted children and consequences such as poverty, improper socialisation, and nurturing with the extended consequences such as crime and violence.

But the problem is that to overhaul education in this way the youngsters are going to need literature from books and the Internet that is different from what obtains in the present method of education. It will mean that someone’s book will not be sold. Do we need to change books so often? Apparently someone felt that if books are handed down from one sibling to another, and then to the next generation, someone will not make so much money on purchasing books.

So now the present Government has come up with yet another plan to deal with violence. We hear that it will have the social intervention programmes as it is recognised that policing alone cannot solve the problem. But it will never be enough until we overhaul the entire education system. In the meantime, we can have positive extra-curricular activities for the youngsters.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com