Editorial | In defeating dunce

It is right to empathise with head teachers who fret at the thought of students coming to their institutions with knapsacks emblazoned with the word ‘Dunce’, which, on its face, is at variance with the ethos of education and the business of schools.

Education Minister Fayval Williams’ suggestions for dealing with the concern, though far more difficult to do, is likely, in the long run, to yield better results than the threats of exclusion of some principals.

The issue, though, again raises questions about the problems of parenting in Jamaica; the involvement of caregivers in their children’s education; and the impact of popular culture on social behaviour. It is another of the matters about which Jamaica must urgently engage in national conversation, as part of a broader effort at shoring up a weakened system of values. This must be an ongoing, energetically pursued initiative directly led by the prime minister.

The so-called Dunce bags have apparently been made fashionable by a song by the Jamaican dancehall deejay, Valiant, called Dunce Cheque. The song not only celebrates the prospects of making money without education, but doing so by criminal means, including fraud and violence. It also encourages drug use and misogyny, involving non-consensual sex.

“... Money a di subject”, the song asserts for those students at the back of the class, unconcerned about learning or examination results, who celebrate being dunce.

Valiant, of course, is not the first dancehall artiste to pose being dunce as a condition worthy of celebration, especially when taken in concert with the capacity, or willingness, to perpetrate violence.

For instance, the Trinidadian deejay, Rebel Sixx, who was associated with the Montego Bay-based Sixx Alliance before he was murdered in Port of Spain in 2020, toasted this perception of power and arrival in his song Fully Dunce.

“...Man born fully dunce

We nah have sense

Pull up everybody run

Selector turn on

and everybody dead …”

IMPRESSIONABLE

These cannot be the ideas of life Jamaica wishes to offer in schools, especially in a society with high levels of criminal violence, even if, as many will insist, students have the ability to distinguish between the reality of their personal behaviour and the lyrics of songs.

But young minds are also impressionable, and the messages and metaphors of those songs are at odds with the ethos of Jonathan Grant High School, which declares to its students at its gate, before they enter the campus, that “today is your day to excel”. Not at being dunce.

Jonathan Grant High’s principal, O’Neal Ankle, initially said that students with Dunce bags wouldn’t be allowed into classes. “I will not allow it,” he said. “I know I will get a strap for it, but I don’t care.”

He revised his stance to one that offenders would be placed in special holding areas, rather than turned out altogether.

Several other principals had variations of the same policy, until Ms Williams made it clear that exclusion of children from classes would be inappropriate, and likely to be in breach of the law.

Indeed – as the minister noted – there are numerous studies that highlight dangers of excluding students from education. This form of punishment often reinforces negative behaviours and attitudes and, at its extreme, hampers life chances. Which, in this case, could mean creating ‘dunces’ who bear the attitudes of the songs.

Moreover, it is unlikely the offending bags were acquired for themselves by the students who carry them. They were purchased by adults, who saw nothing untoward in their children having them. Or that they might be contrary to the values of schools and the presumed ideals of the wider society. When considered in this light, the punishment of exclusion targets the wrong perpetrator, perhaps making the child who carries the bag twice a victim – burdened by the vice of the parent and the immediate recipient of the school’s displeasure.

INADEQUACY IN COMMUNICATION

Minister Williams’ advice to heads of having conversations with students “about the appropriateness of their behaviours, choices and consequences” of their actions, is a good place to start within the school environment.

But of greater potential value is her advice of convening “empowerment sessions for parents, with a focus on positive parenting”. This, however, should be a larger national campaign.

Jamaica is facing a parenting crisis. Which is not because the majority of parents are inherently bad. Mostly, they are overwhelmed by all the challenges of life in Jamaica and lack the skills with which to cope, including how to engage with their children.

Last November, Kaysia Kerr, CEO of Jamaica’s National Parenting Support Commission, reported on a survey which showed that only 7.5 per cent of parents felt that they could effectively communicate with their children. This inadequacy in communication plays out, negatively, in many areas. Approaches to discipline is one of them. As is the ability to create social boundaries and to inculcate positive values in their offspring.

These are now intergenerational problems. Therefore, the embrace of dysfunctional behaviour and the celebration of unedifying norms are cycles to be broken, with which parents need help.

It will happen best in a large stakeholders partnership – a national mobilisation for values and attitude.