The lessons from the story of Rosianne

Unfortunately, the media that reports what happens in our Parliament failed to report this.

Some days before Parliament broke for the Summer Recess, the youngest MP in the House spoke during the Adjournment of the House.

Rosianne Cutajar had already spoken (that is, made her Maiden Speech) when she introduced the debate in reply to the Speech from the Throne. But this was a very different speech. Ms Cutajar chose to speak about herself, in all candour and without embarrassment. She was telling the story of her life, but it could be the story of hundreds, nay, thousands of people of her age.

She was born in a family with no extra means. She went to state schools but somewhere along the line her grasp of Maths was weak. That meant she was sent to a school where children with low grades were sent. Her life looked set for a lifetime of limited achievements. Even the school structure seemed to agree with this low prospect. Then Rosianne had two lucky breaks. Somehow she learned Italian and learned it very well. That was not enough, her Maths was still bad. Her second break was when she had a teacher who encouraged her and who even went to the headmaster to tell him this student had potential and should be encouraged. Fortunately, the head agreed with the teacher.

As a result, Rosianne was given help. Her grades got better. She made it to University, became mayor of her town and today is an MP. She humbly acknowledged that she is today the result of the encouragement she got.

That was her message: to the students not to let themselves be discouraged and to the educators and to people in charge of young people to encourage them rather than let them get discouraged. One reads such messages of encouragement in books and articles but when someone tells you about one’s personal life, the impact is far greater.

Even in times such as these, huge potential is still being lost, students’ lives are still being wasted and all our educational infrastructure – schools, laptops, all the rest – wasted because children’s lives are wasted.

We all need a periodic reminder of this basic situation in our schools and of the terrible waste of human potentialities. All the honeyed words about the success of our educational system stand or fall depending on what the students make of their lives.

Finally, the message should be addressed to the students themselves: not to allow adverse circumstances affect their lives and get them down. We all need the luminous example that people like Rosianne Cutajar can give to students, then, now and forever: never give up, never let adversity get you down. Always be on top of events and circumstances and never let them get on top of you.