What's wrong with our students?

What's wrong with our students?

Its 8:45 a.m. and it is Monday morning. As I drive along the road I see a congregation of students at the bus stop at the Corner Hotel. Driving further east I see another congregation of students at Bahamas Faith Ministries (BFM). It’s now 9:01 a.m. I see students coming from the Super Value area in Golden Gates. They are walking slower than police officers on a slow march.

I continue driving onto Blue Hill Road and head north. In my passing I see the same thing. Our students are taking their slow time to get to their school of attendance. Some of them are even hitch-hiking. Don’t they know that the bell has already rung? Don’t they know that classes have begun? Don’t they know that it’s not cool to be late? Or is it?

Many of these students who are lackadaisical in their effort to arrive to school early may not know that the same things they are doing now they are bound to repeat later in life. They soon will realize that no magic switch exists that can be turned off and on at their leisure. We are all creatures of habit.

I remember attending St. Anne’s High School in the mid 1980’s. Being late was not an option. In fact, I explicitly remember getting up at 6:00 a.m. each morning for school. If I was not up, I certainly heard my mummy banging on the room door and telling me to get ready for school. This was an everyday routine. To this date, my mother’s teaching has still stuck with me.

It was inconceivable for me and my sister to arrive to school late save for an appointment to see the doctor or a family emergency. Our uniforms were pressed the night before and we always went to school clean and looking sharp.

Times have now changed. Some of our male students of today wear uniforms that are so stiff that they can hardly walk while wearing them. They spend hours ironing their shirt and pants. And to add insult to injury, the young men put their pants in their socks. What nonsense is this?

I am not sure if there is an arm of the government that has responsibility for ensuring that students are in school by 8:45 a.m. as opposed to being on the streets during school hours. But help is desperately needed to police this issue. Our national education average needs to be improved and if students are not in school when they are supposed to be, I can surely say that their level of education will not improve.

What’s wrong with our students? Don’t they see the need to compete with each other so that as a country we can be a more educated people? I remember back in the early 90’s if you earned an Associate’s of Arts Degree you were saying something. Now days a Bachelor’s Degree is the minimum qualifications needed to get a lot of higher paying jobs. Our students must realize that after high school, many of them will not be hired because the jobs are just not available and it is probable that the best students will get the first chance at employment and or qualify to attend college. It makes no sense to “duck” school now because most of the skills that students do not learn now, they will have to learn them later at some point and it will cost them maybe thousands of dollars.

Maybe the root of the problem starts with the parents who are ill equipped to parent or who just do not make a concerted effort to be involved in their children’s lives. Maybe the public at large needs to chip in and help.

Students, please ensure that you arrive to school on time and learn as much as you can. Being late for no good reason is not cool. I think it is an extremely bad habit that needs to be broken now. If you want to increase your chances for success in life please heed my advice. Remember that your future hangs in the balance and it depends on what you do today.

Dehavilland Moss