Dear Editor,

The home is where a child first interacts with people before exploring the external environment.

Although the external environment can significantly impact children’s development, they will, however, live what they learn, and parents must nourish their children to have an impact on the Jamaican society.

Often we hear parents say they cannot control their child/children, when, truthfully, it is the parents who are at fault because of their poor parenting skills, and they have allowed the child to do whatever he or she wants.

According to Unicef, a child is someone that is below the age of 18 years old. Why are children below 16 attending and promoting street parties? Why are parents using their sons and daughters as sex slaves? Why are children on the streets begging to survive?

An article published in The Gleaner on December 27, 2022 stated that data from the World Health Organization shows that Jamaica has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the Caribbean, with over 60 per cent of all pregnancies occurring among young women between the ages of 15 and 19. How disappointing!

Some parents give their daughters too much leeway, leading to them being kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Additionally, some of our future ladies are not motivated and instead are caught up in a fairy tale that they will find their Prince Charming who will sustain them.

They want the latest of everything and all the fandangles, but they do not care to be working-class women. Imagine being in high school but in a relationship with someone 10 years older. “Mi woulda prefer a big man; big man have money and can tek care a mi. Schoolboy money dun pon Fridays,” according to one high school girl. Undoubtedly, grown men take advantage of these naive underaged girls, luring them with money, even food.

School violence continues to be a thorn in the flesh of our educators and academic staff. There is no peace in secondary schools, only days of torment as students continue to wreak havoc.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected our students mentally, emotionally, and socially? 16-year-old Michion Campbell was stabbed to death; 14-year-old Jaheim Colman was beaten unconscious; and an Edwin Allen High School student was also beaten unconscious. It is becoming extremely daunting.

Are parents to be blamed for the bad behaviour of their children? These are the ones who ultimately plague the country with crime and violence.

I recently visited an early childhood centre and heard one of the preschoolers singing Cool It by dancehall artiste Spice. The music we play affects our children; therefore, we must be careful, as they look up to us for guidance and see us as role models.

It is not uncanny that dancehall blatantly has a hand in influencing negative behaviour in adolescents and children. The lewd lyrical content and explicit sexual videos do poison the minds of the youth.

These buses that are “lapping up” students from the front to the back row are also of deep concern as well as the loud music they play while children gyrate to the lewd music.

Gone are the days when children would have to be at church for Bible school. It is as if church has become a place of mockery, and students no longer want to attend school devotions. Is this the generation of vipers of which the Bible speaks?

Yes, children are becoming more rebellious and defiant; nonetheless, parents still have a role to play.

Paul Gardener

gardenerp3@gmail.com