Latest update May 10th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 11, 2016 Letters
Dear Editor,
Currently in Guyana, it is glaringly obvious to even the mildly myopic that the youth do not in any way, shape or form subscribe to the same moral values and code of conduct as the previous generations have. In past times there was no doubt or mystery surrounding what was taught and where. School was a place for academic education, and all pupils were expected to enter already endowed with a sense of right and wrong.
Education in social morality as well as social conduct was primarily carried out in the home, a place where children learned from their parents, elders and neighbours. Today, for some strange inexplicable reason there are many people, including parents who are of the firmly-held belief that schools are responsible for providing students with education in areas such as morality, ethics and good citizenry. Taking into full account the pervasive moral decay that has engulfed Guyana, is there a need for character education becoming a mandatory part of the curriculum? Advocates have argued that if well applied, it would bear fruit and produce not only academically successful students, but in time more socially productive citizens—something that Guyana can certainly do with.
At least 18 states in the US have mandated through legislation character education in public schools. The North Carolina’s Student Citizen Act of 2001, have tasked the local Boards of Education to develop and implement character education programs in their schools. Character education programs target core values such as courage, self-discipline, justice, respect, and responsibility among others and teach children to integrate these into their everyday lives.
Yes, it has indeed been shown that character can be taught. But it is not a one way street or a one person load. If we want remediation across the broad spectrum then it must be taught in the school, the home and the community.
Parents are urged to lay and maintain the foundation that encourages children to learn while embracing the challenges and opportunities that school offers, as they are children’s first moral teacher. The old well-known proverb states that it takes a village to raise a child; hence the onus falls on us all to ensure that the village takes this responsibility extremely seriously. As parents and adults we also teach character education in our daily activities, and the messages transmitted through our conversations and behaviour. Once the foundation has been successfully laid and the pupil comes from a home within a community that has taken its responsibility seriously, then the work of the teacher is greatly facilitated.
Schools are the last remaining bastions of traditional values, but the teaching of values and morality should not be considered as being separate or as a special program to be added or tacked on to the curriculum, but instead is carried out in the process of building relationships with students and a culture of learning in the classroom and by extension the school.
As our beloved country tries its utmost to move forward under the weight of all that ails it, character education can be considered among the elements required to transform the youth of today into the virtuous and educated citizenry of tomorrow. Though time ticks on, we can do it.
Yvonne Sam.
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