Dear Editor,
Recently I attended my brother's graduation and had the pleasure of hearing guest speaker Karl Watson, special needs co-ordinator at the Ministry of Education, address the primary school graduates.
I was pleasantly surprised by the passion with which he delivered his speech, stressing so profoundly the development and education of our Jamaican boys, something our society so passively regards.
It is widely known that the population of girls in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions far outnumbers the boys, and that girls usually perform better academically than boys. Should we assume that this is innate to our Jamaican males and pray that this changes with the next generation, or should we take a further look at the home structure to see if this is something that is coming from the "cornerstone of society" and start fixing the problem there?
There is no one person to blame for boys' lack of interest in education or ambition to work hard for what they want. In this age of scamming and fast money, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep our boys out of jail or away from lifestyles that run counter to what is considered the norm or acceptable by society.
Let us examine the households. The most devastating factor is single parenthood. In most cases, if single parents are able to meet their financial needs, they are not able to meet their psycho- emotional or psycho-social needs, because they have to be working to provide financial stability.
This then leads to the child seeking this elsewhere, and if you understand Maslow's hierarchy of needs then you will understand where I am going with this.
Another deep-rooted issue is the gender bias that exists in the household. The females are generally expected to do well in school and amount to something but the males, on the other hand, can 'do a trade' if they are not doing so well in school. They are allowed to do whatever they want because they are not to be grown as sissies.
Some are even taken out of school at an early age to provide for the family. They are sent to hustle, using any means possible. I implore parents to raise their boys like the men they would want for themselves and for their daughters. Encourage them to pursue academics or technical skills with vigour. Encourage them to work hard for what they want.
Gender bias is also very prevalent in the schools. One of the major reasons is that there are more female teachers than male teachers in many of the co-ed schools across the island. This goes back to the ratio of males to females pursuing higher education.
Female teachers will never be able to understand and relate to male students the way a male teacher can, especially if the male student in question does not have a father figure in his life. Very few female teachers are able to accomplish this task and therefore it is a recommendation that remedial and reformation projects be created to address these issues, either through the Ministry of Education or through social work programmes.
We need to break this cycle of underachievement and underperformance of our boys so that they can grow up as empowered, respectable men. We need a society of men we can be proud of. We need to have a society in which men are too busy innovating and building the nation to get caught up in illicit activities and thus end up in prison.
Parents, teachers, churches, society, I implore you, raise our men to become great kings as Karl Watson so fervently said in his speech to the GSAT graduates.
We need a change, as this is the only way our social climate will improve. It starts with our people. Our men.
Patrice Whyte
Patrice.whyte@gmail.com
Needed: A society of men we can be proud of
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Recently I attended my brother's graduation and had the pleasure of hearing guest speaker Karl Watson, special needs co-ordinator at the Ministry of Education, address the primary school graduates.
I was pleasantly surprised by the passion with which he delivered his speech, stressing so profoundly the development and education of our Jamaican boys, something our society so passively regards.
It is widely known that the population of girls in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions far outnumbers the boys, and that girls usually perform better academically than boys. Should we assume that this is innate to our Jamaican males and pray that this changes with the next generation, or should we take a further look at the home structure to see if this is something that is coming from the "cornerstone of society" and start fixing the problem there?
There is no one person to blame for boys' lack of interest in education or ambition to work hard for what they want. In this age of scamming and fast money, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep our boys out of jail or away from lifestyles that run counter to what is considered the norm or acceptable by society.
Let us examine the households. The most devastating factor is single parenthood. In most cases, if single parents are able to meet their financial needs, they are not able to meet their psycho- emotional or psycho-social needs, because they have to be working to provide financial stability.
This then leads to the child seeking this elsewhere, and if you understand Maslow's hierarchy of needs then you will understand where I am going with this.
Another deep-rooted issue is the gender bias that exists in the household. The females are generally expected to do well in school and amount to something but the males, on the other hand, can 'do a trade' if they are not doing so well in school. They are allowed to do whatever they want because they are not to be grown as sissies.
Some are even taken out of school at an early age to provide for the family. They are sent to hustle, using any means possible. I implore parents to raise their boys like the men they would want for themselves and for their daughters. Encourage them to pursue academics or technical skills with vigour. Encourage them to work hard for what they want.
Gender bias is also very prevalent in the schools. One of the major reasons is that there are more female teachers than male teachers in many of the co-ed schools across the island. This goes back to the ratio of males to females pursuing higher education.
Female teachers will never be able to understand and relate to male students the way a male teacher can, especially if the male student in question does not have a father figure in his life. Very few female teachers are able to accomplish this task and therefore it is a recommendation that remedial and reformation projects be created to address these issues, either through the Ministry of Education or through social work programmes.
We need to break this cycle of underachievement and underperformance of our boys so that they can grow up as empowered, respectable men. We need a society of men we can be proud of. We need to have a society in which men are too busy innovating and building the nation to get caught up in illicit activities and thus end up in prison.
Parents, teachers, churches, society, I implore you, raise our men to become great kings as Karl Watson so fervently said in his speech to the GSAT graduates.
We need a change, as this is the only way our social climate will improve. It starts with our people. Our men.
Patrice Whyte
Patrice.whyte@gmail.com
Needed: A society of men we can be proud of
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