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Similarities and ironies
Michae Burke
Thursday, July 26, 2007
On Monday of this week, there was a news item that spoke to a statement by the executive director of the Jamaica Employers' Federation. According to the report, Jacqueline Coke Lloyd was of the view that "mediocre students reflect substandard teaching islandwide, and believes top local teachers should be bolstered by a cadre of competent foreign recruits".
It was only last Friday that Jimmy Carnegie was laid to rest. The large turnout of Jamaica College old boys knew him as a mentor. And many JC old boys - some publicly, others privately - said that in the 1960s when JC had many expatriate teachers including the principal, Carnegie was the go-between for most students. By the 1960s, as a result of the Common Entrance Examination, most students were from the inner city. And they could not relate to an environment of so many foreigners who did not understand the culture.
Our education system is not custom-built to meet the needs of Jamaicans. As a result, several people - even some with doctorates - are maladjusted, immature and insecure as human beings. Yes, we have a historical problem in Jamaica getting people to understand the importance of good family life, and only the school can be used as the correction tool. But to a large extent this has not been done.
That is one reason why Jimmy Carnegie stood out - because he was one of a few teachers in the island who understood how a school for Jamaican boys (my emphasis) should function. It is nothing short of ironic that a few days after tributes were paid to Jimmy Carnegie for his role in teaching that a call is being made for the exact opposite.
Jimmy Carnegie was the main teacher at JC in the 1960s who made students want to go to school. This was because he was virtually the liaison officer between the expatriate teachers and Jamaican students. And now there is a call for the recruitment of foreign teachers. Many of these grown men who are in great positions of influence today have said that in their days as JC students were it not for Jimmy Carnegie they would have been total failures.
I can only ask Jacqueline Coke Lloyd to think again. To me, it is better to have students passing fewer CXCs and having their social and psychological needs met than to get straight-A students who are completely dysfunctional as adults, because the teachers and the education system do not provide what is needed.
Indeed, it reminds me of a barbershop. It is one of the places where men have what is called male bonding in recent times. In many respects, the male bonding in the barbershop is equal to the bar, the playing of dominoes or football, and whatever else. Now, there are a few women barbers, many of whom are better at trimming than many of their male counterparts.
But if some men were honest with themselves, they would admit that they prefer to get a not-so-good trim in a barbershop from a male barber than to get an excellent trim from a woman. This is mainly because many men feel obliged to "edit" everything that they say in the presence of women, which is an obstacle to male bonding. Some men say that most times women totally misinterpret what is said.
And many men move with their brethren half the time because for the other half of their lives when they live with their wives they have to think before talking, lest they be misinterpreted. So being with their brethren is actually a break from that. The point that I am making here is that sometimes people prefer less of one thing to gain more from another. And I use the similarity between examinations and social affirmation on the one hand, and the barbershop and the needs for male bonding on the other.
A certain similarity, which has its irony, is the noise about the People's National Party withdrawing advertisements from Nationwide. It reminds me of a scenario with Public Opinion, the newspaper that was the first official organ of the PNP. In October 1964, Jamaica received the sad news of the death of Ken Jones, ostensibly by sleepwalking and falling off a balcony.
Then minister of communications and works, he was at a Cabinet retreat at Sunset Lodge. It so happens that there were all sorts of other versions about what happened; none of which will be repeated here. Suffice it to say that Public Opinion published one of the versions, which of course could not be substantiated. As a result, Public Opinion was sued - and some would say that justice was done.
But Public Opinion, while appealing for advertisers and subscriptions, complained that the government of Jamaica at the time, not the party (and the party was JLP), withdrew government advertisements from the newspaper. At least with the PNP and the recent report that it was not giving ads to Nationwide, the party is talking about withdrawal of private money. It is nevertheless childish, but not half as odious as withdrawing government ads as a weapon, as happened in the 1960s with Public Opinion.
Michae Burke
Thursday, July 26, 2007
On Monday of this week, there was a news item that spoke to a statement by the executive director of the Jamaica Employers' Federation. According to the report, Jacqueline Coke Lloyd was of the view that "mediocre students reflect substandard teaching islandwide, and believes top local teachers should be bolstered by a cadre of competent foreign recruits".
It was only last Friday that Jimmy Carnegie was laid to rest. The large turnout of Jamaica College old boys knew him as a mentor. And many JC old boys - some publicly, others privately - said that in the 1960s when JC had many expatriate teachers including the principal, Carnegie was the go-between for most students. By the 1960s, as a result of the Common Entrance Examination, most students were from the inner city. And they could not relate to an environment of so many foreigners who did not understand the culture.
Our education system is not custom-built to meet the needs of Jamaicans. As a result, several people - even some with doctorates - are maladjusted, immature and insecure as human beings. Yes, we have a historical problem in Jamaica getting people to understand the importance of good family life, and only the school can be used as the correction tool. But to a large extent this has not been done.
That is one reason why Jimmy Carnegie stood out - because he was one of a few teachers in the island who understood how a school for Jamaican boys (my emphasis) should function. It is nothing short of ironic that a few days after tributes were paid to Jimmy Carnegie for his role in teaching that a call is being made for the exact opposite.
Jimmy Carnegie was the main teacher at JC in the 1960s who made students want to go to school. This was because he was virtually the liaison officer between the expatriate teachers and Jamaican students. And now there is a call for the recruitment of foreign teachers. Many of these grown men who are in great positions of influence today have said that in their days as JC students were it not for Jimmy Carnegie they would have been total failures.
I can only ask Jacqueline Coke Lloyd to think again. To me, it is better to have students passing fewer CXCs and having their social and psychological needs met than to get straight-A students who are completely dysfunctional as adults, because the teachers and the education system do not provide what is needed.
Indeed, it reminds me of a barbershop. It is one of the places where men have what is called male bonding in recent times. In many respects, the male bonding in the barbershop is equal to the bar, the playing of dominoes or football, and whatever else. Now, there are a few women barbers, many of whom are better at trimming than many of their male counterparts.
But if some men were honest with themselves, they would admit that they prefer to get a not-so-good trim in a barbershop from a male barber than to get an excellent trim from a woman. This is mainly because many men feel obliged to "edit" everything that they say in the presence of women, which is an obstacle to male bonding. Some men say that most times women totally misinterpret what is said.
And many men move with their brethren half the time because for the other half of their lives when they live with their wives they have to think before talking, lest they be misinterpreted. So being with their brethren is actually a break from that. The point that I am making here is that sometimes people prefer less of one thing to gain more from another. And I use the similarity between examinations and social affirmation on the one hand, and the barbershop and the needs for male bonding on the other.
A certain similarity, which has its irony, is the noise about the People's National Party withdrawing advertisements from Nationwide. It reminds me of a scenario with Public Opinion, the newspaper that was the first official organ of the PNP. In October 1964, Jamaica received the sad news of the death of Ken Jones, ostensibly by sleepwalking and falling off a balcony.
Then minister of communications and works, he was at a Cabinet retreat at Sunset Lodge. It so happens that there were all sorts of other versions about what happened; none of which will be repeated here. Suffice it to say that Public Opinion published one of the versions, which of course could not be substantiated. As a result, Public Opinion was sued - and some would say that justice was done.
But Public Opinion, while appealing for advertisers and subscriptions, complained that the government of Jamaica at the time, not the party (and the party was JLP), withdrew government advertisements from the newspaper. At least with the PNP and the recent report that it was not giving ads to Nationwide, the party is talking about withdrawal of private money. It is nevertheless childish, but not half as odious as withdrawing government ads as a weapon, as happened in the 1960s with Public Opinion.