Glenda Simms, Contributor
SEPTEMBER 2004 was unlike most return-to-school months. Hurricane Ivan interrupted the established activities of another generation of young Jamaicans who entered the formal educational system for the first time. In spite of the disruption in the patterns of going to school, one feature of the new generation of 'schoolers' was the presence of the heavy backpack, otherwise called knapsack, on the backs of little boys and girls who were prepared by their parents and guardians to turn out on the first day of school.
Heavy knapsacks on developing spines ought to be seen as a potential problem.
Our medical doctors need to educate our Jamaican parents about the impact of such heavy loads on the bodies of such young children. Sometimes I wonder about the contents of a knapsack that cause little children to walk to school in a bent-over fashion.
LOAD AND LEARNING
I imagine that many books are included. I also suspect that packages of sweet biscuit, artificial cheese balls and boxes of chemically-enhanced juices keep company with pencils, crayons and other gadgets that the individual child might need to feel comfortable in his or her new basic school. The question I ask every September is, why does a basic school child need so much load in order to get an education?
I thought basic schools should exemplify the established common sense and research based findings that the most important methodology to learning for young children is based in play. Why then do these youngsters need to take so many books to kindergarten classes? I hope somebody out there in 'education land' has a good answer.
Researchers Joan Packer Isenberg and Nancy Quisenberry in a position paper prepared for the Association of Children Education International, point to the importance of play in the total development of young children. They inform us that play must be understood to be a dynamic, active and constructive behaviour. We must therefore remind parents and teachers that when they complain that a little child is too 'play-play' they are robbing such a child of that which "is an essential and integral part of all children's healthy growth, development and learning across all ages, domains and cultures."
In Jamaica, the majority of young parents, especially the teenage ones, package their children for school without a good understanding of how children learn and what is the role of the home in the learning process. I am of the opinion that many teenage mothers see their children, especially the girl child as 'breathing dolls'. They therefore put a lot of emphasis on the number of plastic baubles that are attached to the intricate braids which are much too tight for young scalps, the piercing of ear lobes which were not designed for earrings at such a young age, and the name brand and colour of the latest canvas overloaded knapsack.
PARENTING INITIATIVES
There are many excellent parenting initiatives that are currently being implemented by non-governmental and governmental bodies. However, there are many pockets of young parents who need help and guidance in understanding some very basic ideas about what is important to the positive development of the human child.
There is an urgent need to ensure that parents help young children to unpack their knapsacks, lighten their burden and return to the beauty of just being a child who should be learning by playing at home, at school and in the community.
Dr. Glenda P. Simms is the executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
