SCHOOL OR HELL ?

EDUCATION OR CONCENTRATION CAMP

As an adult I look back at my schooling and realize that it has done nothing for me, in fact the School System as it is set up in my country really retards a child from truly learning. Children like me who were well advanced for their age or were hyper-active just fell through the cracks since no teacher is trained or even has the patience to deal with us. Today it is even worse. We as parents seem to be raising thorough-bred racehorses. We force them to learn all the subjects in Primary School at such a rate even sending them for extra lessons to sit an exam that children end up never truly having childhood time. Even by the time they leave University we have no clue who they are.

I have watched so many children literally crash, and what is worse, they rebel so ultimately that the opposite of education occurs, the children prefer to stay dumb. Parents live out their lives through their children, hoping they could mold them so they would not make their past mistakes and embarrass them. There is such a push that if the child does embarrass them they feel ashamed and want to distance themselves from the child. Where is the love, the compassion, the upliftment from a parent that says that you will make mistakes in life but I will always love you and I encourage you to pick yourself up and try again?

Parents today forsake their responsibility as parents; they forget that God gave them special gifts as caretakers, one day they will be called to account. No, they give up their rights to the state and to the school; they don't want to take the responsibility for their child going astray. They prefer to blame the teacher, the school, the society, no one takes a good look at themselves. It's sad when I hear parents say that they had their time and they went through hell, but now their children have to feel what it was like to struggle. It is these statements that make my blood boil.

There are parents who do the opposite, those who spoil their children and don't even correct them. They are setting their children up for a great fall. The fact is there is need for a balance which is not being met at home or in the school. Teachers are not really paid well for all they have to do, especially the psychological problems children come to school with. These children use the school as a punching bag for all their frustrations. Yes, I would admit that there are many teachers who are delinquent, but those who work are punished, not rewarded, for helping.

Education is a trap, a game where to me crazy people, Frankenstein type people, experiment and in the process destroy children's lives. Here in Trinidad we have so called experts who read up on the latest model of education and then implement only part of what is read. Worse yet, when a policy is deemed a failure in the country they took it from, we are just now implementing it.

As for the officials, teachers quarrel about how badly behaved parents and children are, parents blame teachers for all sorts of problems in their children's life and of course the society blames the teacher for even the political mess and crime situation. How can any child do well in this system?

As for me, well the system said I was a problem and told my parents that I would never go anywhere. I was beaten by so many teachers that I had horrible nightmares for years. I was bounced from school to school and no one took an interest in me, except the occasional teacher who knew my parents. I finally settled down and began to improve when I was about 17 years old and since then I have proven all the skeptics wrong, since I went on to University.

The fact remains that no one really cares for what is best for a child, not even some parents. My wife and I have recently experienced so much uncaring in the system, which has left our children so traumatized that we have decided to Home School. I just want to say it was the best decision we ever made.