Simms
Glenda Simms
KARYL WALKER in the February 19, 2004 edition of the Daily Observer reported that the father of an eleventh grader went to the Dunoon Park Technical High School and instigated the savage beating of his own son by a group of students.
The students had no qualms in brutalising the young man whose dear father suspected that he might have gay tendencies. Such suspicion was based on the fact that the young man had pictures of nude men in his bag. Apparently, outsiders joined the school's lynch mob and if an ancillary staff member had not intervened the young man would have been killed.
One teacher on the staff of the school is reported to have said, "They were intent on killing him. They were like a pack of wild animals who had smelled blood and if it wasn't for a staff member who jumped on top of him you would be reporting on a mob killing."
Since the reported incident, there have been no follow-up articles on the situation of the student, or the actions that have been taken by the Principal and the School Board to ensure that such an incident is not forgotten but is addressed at a number of levels in the educational system.
PROTECTION
It is obvious that the young man who was so severely attacked and humiliated needs protection from both his vicious schoolmates as well as from his father.
But are we really equipped to do much more than grieve for this boy and hope that he will be safe?
Do churches, civic groups and state agencies have clear plans to address the underlying issues of the hatred and intolerance that are demonstrated by our actions on a daily basis?
Are the mothers of young
men and women prepared for their children to be killed because they might have
homosexual tendencies?
Is the average Jamaican family adequately prepared to discuss such tendencies?
If parents are not equipped to lead this discussion, who then is responsible for having an honest approach to matters of sexuality and sexual identification with adolescents and children? Whose role is it to recognise the confusion around gender identity and roles that face young people?
In contemplating the answers to these questions, the society need to insist that formal educational institutions should show greater leadership in ensuring that all our children get the kind of family life and human sexuality information that will equip them to deal with the complexity of these issues.
From the recent discussions on the educational system in Jamaica it has become clear that many principals and school boards are reneging on their responsibility to develop young minds in a broad-based and holistic framework.
While we are told, on the one hand, that principals are unable to get rid of incompetent teachers, on the other hand we are alerted to the fact that some principals use their power to disenfranchise children who are either sexually active or who need to deal with confusion around sexual issues. This disenfranchisement lies in the fact that principals have the right to decide whether or not the relevant information is available in the schools curriculum. This state of affairs was underscored in an article written by Trudy Simpson and published in the February 6, 2004 edition of the The Gleaner.
POWERLESS
Ms Simpson reports that at a Gleaner Forum, Dr. Delores Brissett who heads the Ministry of Education's Guidance and Counselling Unit admitted that "the Ministry was powerless to prevent schools pushing the Home and Family Life (HFLE) programme off the timetable."
Dr. Brissett informed her audience that "the decision to implement the programme rests at the school level, especially with the principals, and often comes in a poor second to subjects such as mathematics and English Language in terms of time
allotment."
Obviously, the issue of the hierarchy of subject matter is more of an ideological than an educational issue within the formal educational system. There are enough hours in a school day to afford all children, within their individual intellectual capacity, to be well-prepared for the demands of the workforce, career aspirations and life challenges.
The outcome of this formal educational system should
be more than a body of knowledge to be memorised and regurgitated to attain marks in an examination.
Critical thinking and problem solving skills that can be applied to all aspects of life should be amongst the priorities of educational outcomes.
Within such a view, information about family-life, values and the fundamental aspects of human sexuality should be easily accommodated either through discreet modules or as cross cutting issues worthy of discussion in a variety of subject areas.
In providing all the opportunities for understanding complex human issues, schools can change the mindset of the young people who learn so quickly the bigotry and intolerance of the adult population.
Life today is so complex, overwhelming and more multi-layered than ever before. Our young people's realities are a reflection of a globalized world in which they are bombarded with variations in lifestyles. Our children and youth watch daily the atrocities of an inhumane world, and the variations in sexual behaviours (heterosexual, homosexual and bi-sexual) as they flip from one cable channel to another.
DEVELOPMENT
But even if their world had not become so complex, adolescents always faced confusion as they moved from one stage of development to another.
There was a time when many parents, most teachers and all those who had some connection with and influence on the lives of adolescents, paid much attention to the unique developmental needs of young men and young women.
Those with formal training in human development were expected to incorporate in their work the many theories that attempted to clarify the social, physical, spiritual and psychological needs of the adolescent.
IDENTITY
For instance, psychoanalyst Erik Erikson argues that the "major challenge of adolescence is the creation of an adult
identity." He also points out that this identity extends to "sexual, political and religious beliefs and commitments". Within this framework any young man might want to look at the nude bodies of other men in order to evaluate his own potential. This does not mean that he is sexually aroused by men. It might simply mean that he wants models of what he should aspire to look like if he is to grow up to be a "man" in a macho genitalia-
centred society.
Such a young man needs love and understanding, not beatings by schoolmates or rejection by parents.
Dr. Glenda Simms is Executive Director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
