Who has our backs?
SINCE THE start of the 2019-2020 school year, teachers and the education system continue to dominate the spotlight. The issues include the perpetual teacher shortage, as teacher migration has never been more rampant; the multimillion-dollar scandal surrounding the former education minister, Mr Ruel Reid, and Caribbean Maritime University president, Professor Fritz Pinnock; the blatant yet unfortunate utterances from the uncouth tongue of the president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Mr Owen Speid; the issues regarding study and vacation leaves for teachers; and the strikes that took place at the University of Technology and College of Science and Education.
Indeed, this first semester has been quite eventful, and just when one would have thought things were being pacified, then came the buzz – the use of ‘BC’ from the Edna Manley College valedictorian, and most recently, the video being circulated of the Pembroke Hall High School teacher, Marsha-Lee Crawford, threatening one of her students.
With regard to the latter, there have been both harsh criticisms and empathy towards this teacher. Understandably, there are those who find her comments and attitude unbecoming and unprofessional, while others (including many colleagues teaching in international communities), although not condoning the death threats, can relate to realities that confront teachers on a daily basis.
Popular dancehall/reggae artiste, Romain Virgo, in one of his songs, said, “A who feels it knows it.” We live in a society where one of the easiest things to do is to attack others, whether verbally or physically. An attack on this teacher is an attack on other colleagues who have to endure such situations on a daily basis, and also on the education system on a whole. The question goes far beyond whether she was right or acted in an appropriate manner. It is about why this incident happened. What triggered it?
The issue being brought to light (yet again) is a reminder of what the classroom is like these days. We often want to shy away from labelling and stigmatising schools, but the unquestionable fact is that disruptive behaviour is more pronounced in certain schools than in others. Some students, based on their social background and school climate, are more cultured than others and, thus, display more appropriate behaviours.
Those individuals, including some teachers, who have not had an encounter in such rowdy environments like that of Pembroke Hall High, cannot begin to sufficiently understand or fathom the plight that some of the nation’s educators have to deal with minutely and hourly, for five days weekly. Even though the teacher in question admitted to “losing it”, it does not reduce the fact that there are concrete issues to address in the school system.
PROPER PARENTING
One of the recurring elements that I saw from online critics is the notion of proper parenting. Irrefragably, there is a link between how children are socialised and the behaviour they display in public spaces. Some of them are raised in contexts where it is the norm for them to speak to their parents and other adults in whatever manner and whatever tone.
Once this behaviour continues to be validated, they will think it is appropriate to transfer this attitude in the school context and the wider society. Children must “learn fi dance a yaad before dem dance abraad”.
Others suggested that the teacher should have referred the matter to the dean of discipline or the principal. This is fair reasoning. At the same time, however, in some schools neither of these two people is respected by the school population; thus, it rarely changes anything.
It forces us to examine a deeper issue: if students have no regard for senior school officials and administrators, to what extent will they respect a regular classroom teacher? Not to mention the trainee ones who are currently finishing up their teaching practicum. It is often a nightmarish experience for them.
Many schools do not have a positive school climate and culture, and this situation is compounded by oversized classrooms and a significant lack of resources. This reality is not conducive for either the teachers or the students.
On the matter of whether Ms Crawford should face disciplinary sanctions or not, the possibilities are strong. She might not have meant to utter such threats due to her high level of frustration; however, we cannot ignore the gravity of her pronouncements of menacing the student’s life.
With all that teachers have to tolerate in the education system, it begs us to ask the question, who has our backs?