The Editor, Sir:

As a guidance counsellor and parent now residing in Trinidad and Tobago, I find that the misunderstandings and reasons being given for our youths' failure and misbehaviour are now clearer.

So with Trinidad and Tobago spending more on education, with more schools built, 25 children in a class, lunch served, free books (even in private schools) and extra lessons for all, many shared problems still exist. Many bright children are burnt out and ill, and would rather not go to school. Parents blame teachers and teachers blame parents and their children. Additionally, boys from all kinds of homes continue to have a higher rate of failure. Why?

In our passion for education, and our respect for hardwork, we forgot one of the most important ingredients for learning, brain maturation - readiness for school. According to child psychologists, David Elkind, Dr Charles Dobson and developmental psychologist, Jane Heally, the chemical, myelin, which is found in the central nervous system in the cortex region of the brain must be respected as it is responsible for attention span, visual muscles, and a host of other things associated with learning (especially in the case of boys)!

Good or bad

Our traditional to present-day educational model of one-time exams, off to good or bad school, much content to remember, copious numbers of extra lessons, coupled with a poor diet, actually do more harm than good to learners, and misrepresent the hard work of parents, teachers and all other stakeholders.

While there are many children who succeeded by attaining high grades, we pause to pay respects to those who sadly took their lives because it was too furious, too fast.

I encourage citizens to look farther than the old dialogue, such as - it is the parents fault, some people don't want to learn, laziness, bad teachers and principals.

Be reminded there have long been problems, and the new curricula built on the constructivist approach "A child can learn anything at anytime" was not around. Not to mention trying to place that theory on a church school for those who achieve or a 'bad' school for those who get below 90 per cent.

Trinidad and Tobago still shares this bias with all the new schools they built.

The traditional British old model (including GSAT ills) repackaged in CSEC/CAPE was not primarily built on brain development and what is considered developmentally-appropriate, so new advanced curricula can skew research on assessment of learners. For example, at what suggested age will most children read well, and if you force them before they are ready, how does that affect their ability to read?

Biological underpinnings

A gem: Myelin the chemical associated with the biological underpinnings of learning, and critical to the work of (fine motor skills - eyes and small muscles in the hand) reading and writing, usually comes in a bit later for most children, especially boys. It can take as long as up to eight years old for the kind of reading which Caribbean people expect at five years old. Myelin's complete work usually comes to its best work at age 20.

Academic parents and economi-cally strong parents complain about how much they assist. Therefore, in such a challenged educational model, the most needy in our societies will fall out. By the way, they grow up and become parents.

It is time to read widely about how the brain works, and what is considered developmentally appropriate, then our youths from all walks of life would attain "joyful learning" and crime, social deviance, ailing, failing and blaming would be abated.

Interestingly, I feel that Trinidad and Tobago say they have crime because they are rich, and Jamaica says it has crime because it is poor. I now believe we have high levels of crime among our youths, and many other societal ills because we share in common an educational model that harms more than it heals.

I am, etc.,

CAMILE SWAPP

camileswapp@tstt.net.tt

Trinidad and Tobago