Over the last few months the issue of rules in the region’s schools has consumed a great deal of attention.
Whether it was the Transgender student in Barbados and whether they should be allowed to wear a uniform that affirms their gender or the issue of whether a student in Jamaica should be permitted to wear locs, and most recently the furrow over a mandate that male students of the Lodge School in Barbados shave their facial hair.
These various cases are indicative of the fact that we in the region have forgotten the purpose of education, rules and schools.
Rules in education
Education is aimed at enlightenment, and the imparting of knowledge, with a view to fostering self actualization in the student.
Schools, like every other institution in society, have and require rules, and students ought to learn to follow them, but rules must be reasoned and necessary. Suffice it to say that the rules in the aforementioned cases cannot be described as such.
Rules such as these are aimed at nothing more than creating strictures and fostering subjugation that in no way aid the process of enlightenment and self-actualization that modern schools should privilege.
Critical thinking and progress
It is ironic that at the same time that these and similar cases have captured regional attention we are currently having conversations about the rigidity and limits of our colonial style education system, and the development of greater critical thinking in our students. I wholeheartedly endorse the goal but I must add that the exercise ought not be limited to the classroom, but must permeate the institutions and our societies as a whole.
In order to foster creativity that will drive our economies that will reshape some of the staid ways we do business, that formalizes and develops the unique attributes of the region that are only hope at not being the poorest region in the world by 2050, we must not insult the innate intelligence of our students.
We must not be so prepared for our children to be deviant that we create strictures of compliance and conformity that are an affront to common sense and make it so that they cannot be who they are.
The mavericks of industry and the shifters of culture that we want to create and that our survival depend on deserve to be seen, heard and valued for who they are, at each stage of their lives and it is our responsibility to not make them shrink themselves to maintain that which is no longer useful or so we feel more adult.
Limiting notions of self
The rigidity of colonial type education has its limits but it is not hard to see that a student in these times can be brilliant and trans, brilliant with locs, and brilliant with a beard.
Facebook’s Global Chief Diversity Officer, Trinidad-born Maxine Williams, spoke out this week in support of a girl in her home country who was allegedly discriminated against due to her hairstyle.
“From as long as I can remember, my hair has been an “issue” for others. However, at no time was it a factor that impacted my ability to learn and perform in any way.” Williams will next month receive an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies.
Why should a student not be allowed to assert their gender identity by wearing the right uniform or wear locs for religious and or any other purpose or forced to be clean shaven in order to attend school.
Gatekeepers, policy makers, the powers that be have to unlearn the patterns of self hate and intolerance.
Rules are traditionally aimed at resolving a mischief. However, In each of these cases the rules limit who these children are, which if we continue doing what we have done may be the effect of school but certainly is not the purpose.
The effects of exclusion
Further, these cases illustrate that we need to be clear on what infractions require that we exclude students from the classroom and from institutions. By now I imagine we understand the real costs of that exclusion and how it can lead to deviancy and crime and violence that so many of our islands grapple with daily. It is simple, exclusion by suspension or expulsion should only happen for anti social behavior and deviance none of these cases reach that standard.
The cost of our children not finding and asserting themselves is too high and the implications too dire. We miss out on a Marsha Caddle an Arlando Terrolonge, or a Mia Mottley or someone doubly as bright and brave
We must remember that it is not our children that we must fight but rather their dreams we must fight for!
(Andwele A. O. Boyce is a communicator and Disability Advocate who holds degrees in Political Science, International Trade Policy, and Law)
