Dear Editor,

Youths must be elevated. We must try to uplift them to their full potential.

In this day and age we see a lot of youngsters in Jamaica getting involved in some devious activities that sometimes get them killed, especially in the schools. Nowadays, many of the schools are out of control. We see students arguing with teachers, fighting or stabbing each other and myriad other things. Moreover, since we are living in a digital time, in where new social media apps are created for social interactions, there you will see some of the things which are not aired on the news, even if you want to avoid seeing what is happening. Yes, you will hear parents say that they raise their children well, but they don't know how, what, or who influences them to behave rudely outside their homes. Moreover, teachers are even terrified of even correcting them because they don't know if they are going to start a fight with them that will even cost them their lives, you will never know.

Most people are wondering what is happening in our little Jamaica. People are not thinking about a sickness or virus that will kill them, but the violence that is brewing in the land. The youths are being talked about on the news because they are involved in these terrible activities.

Of course, Jamaica can have a shift in these things. I suggest weekly seminars in the schools, starting as low as the primary schools, because we have to try to build them from an early age. I truly believe if we try to build a certain mindset in these youth they will turn from the bad ways that they have developed through societal pressures.

Our youth must know that not because they may grow up with a single parent, or in a remote area, or in a poverty-stricken home that means you should lower your standards. No, it must not be so!

Of course, we are not excluding the principles or training that are supposed to be instilled in the children from home, but we can try to enforce those principles in the schools.

If our youth are taught how to love themselves they will know how to love and care for others. Of course, they may not get it the first time, but by doing these teachings, over a period of time, they will grasp the concept of how to love and elevate themselves. It will become a part of them. This move will enable them to triumph over certain inner battles that tend to plague their minds for them to act the way they do at times.

We have to understand that certain traits are imparted in these youngster from when they were much younger. Some may have been rejected, dejected, maltreated, harassed, and some are even trying to overcome the negative words that were spoken over their lives by people who may be close to them. Yes, low self-esteem is still an issue, because if an individual is not confident in him/herself, he/she will try to crave validations from the wrong people that will sometimes manipulate and hurt them again.

Even if they have a big dream, youngsters can be scared to pursue it, because they may think that they will not succeed. So, we have to look at these things. Of course, we are not sugar-coating the wrongs that they sometimes get entangled with, but we are looking at the root of the problem that we have in these youth in the society.

Let us not give up on our youth. Let us not become discouraged based on what we see happening today, but let us just begin to see the future with a more improved Jamaica in which a shift for the better happens.

Moreover, let us speak well over our nation.

Shawna-Kaye Senior

shawnakaye5senior@gmail.com