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| Wednesday, 25 December 2002 |
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Please forward your letters to editor@dailynews.lk in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
The present trend for violence among students is being blamed on many things. However, it goes back a long way into the lives of these children. 1. Parents - The priority of present-day parents, and those who have been bringing up children for the past 20 years or so, is in providing for the physical needs of their children. To do this, they may both have to go to work. The children, go to carers of one sort or another, at a very early age. Some children lose their mothers or their fathers to the Middle East job market, which makes the family, virtually a single parent family. There is enough written on this subject. (For example the research done in the U.S.A. on violent male prisoners, found that a very high percentage came from single parent families). 2. Substitute carers - These could be excellent, and could include other members of the family, but in most cases they are institutions - child carers, pre-schools, montessori schools and creches. At this young age children do better in a one-to-one situation with adults, and this is almost impossible in these places. Studies done during World War 2 in Great Britain showed that children did not thrive when kept away from their parents, even in times of danger. 3. Pre-schools, creches and montessori schools. The staff in most of these places, are inadequately trained or not trained at all! These include the students from some courses which are considered excellent. To be a "teacher" one has to work with children. Lectures and notes, and exams cannot possibly qualify anyone to understand children. Besides, except for the montessori equipment, there is very little for the children to do. In most cases even the little two-year olds will be sitting, trying to write letters or numbers in exercise books. Can you imagine the self-esteem these children have? They are faced with impossible tasks at the start of their lives. (Perhaps this is why they seek tuition classes in later life, as they feel that nothing that comes from them, can be any good). 4. Tunnel education-or is it Chimney education? - Too much priority is given to academic achievement. There are scholarships, prizes etc, and lots of publicity is given to these. According to recent statistics, given in the local newspapers, only 16 out of every hundred students, make the university entrance. What happens to the others? We should have more technical colleges, catering to the skills that keep the masses of average people, who are not in the top 16 per hundred, alive. Most of the institutions that do think of these students, are private, so parents may have to think of paying out large sums of money, just when they think that their children will be able to look after themselves. 5.-Sunday schools.- Some years back, we would watch the children pass by on their way to the local Temple school, with a little basket of flowers to offer. These are not visible now, unless they are hidden in the large knapsacks that they carry on their backs. Here, and in the Christian Sunday schools, the accent seems to be on academic learning - exams - and prizes and medals. Is it possible that there is no place for the average person, in Nirvana or Heaven? Take away the book learning, and the exams. Put in meditation and religious instruction, that can be carried in the hearts and everyday lives of our children. Tell them the Jataka stories, and the parables and stories from the Bible. Teach them their lessons through these. At present, the books are left in a corner until the next Sunday, and the stories are only remembered when the exams are due. We must live our religion, whatever it is, because all religions are meant to bring out the good in us humans. There are probably many other causes for the problems with our children, but as a pre-school teacher, who has worked here and abroad for over 40 years, I would opt for a better pre-school system. The following is a quotation from a book by Robert Fulghum' an American author, called "All I need to know I learned in Kindergarten" - "All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. (Name for pre-scools etc) Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate - school mountain, but there in the sand pile. These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. (Don't cheat) Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some. Take a nap in the afternoon. When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Gold fish and Hamstersand the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. And remember the Dick and Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - look everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and Love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. MAUREEN WICKREMASINGHE, The hymn "Silent Night Holy Night" is heard from all the corners during the festive season and undoubtedly a very touching melody - I am not wrong if I say that most popular hymn in the world. The history of this hymn is thus: In 1818 this song had been composed. In Austria the Assistant Parish Priest of St. Nicholas' Church was called to see a dying man at dead of night. Surrounded by thick snow and shivering in the cold he had to walk to reach the house of this innocent patient. It was rather a silent night and he had to walk a distance. Although it was quite late in the night the moonlight directed him to the house of this dying man. When he reached the place something prompted him to compose some verses. The words he composed expressed the joy in the season of nativity. After praying for the sick he met one of his friends, FRANZ, his Choirmaster, who composed a tune for these beautiful words; inspiring, touching and moving the hearts of people, both of them sang this brand-new hymn at the Christmas-Eve Mass. This is the birth of Silent Night Holy Night and is celebrated every year by Christians and music lovers, irrespective of their religions. The whole world appreciates it and there is no nativity play or Christmas Party without Silent Night Holy Night of the great composer Father Joseph Mohr, Assistant Parish Priest of St. Nicholas' Church, Oberndorf, Austria. HERBERT SILVA, On 7.12.02, I accompanied my young son and two daughters to the Arena cinema in Katugastota to see a Sinhala comedy film - travelling all the way from Matale. We bought the Rs. 50 ODC tickets and sat on the right-side section of the ODC by-passing 30 odd rows of ODC seats marked 'Ladies only'. After the show started at 11 a.m. an usher rushed in and flashing a torch on our faces shouted out rudely that all males ('pirimin'), including those of us who had avoided the 'Ladies only', section, to vacate our seats immediately and sit on the right-side section of the ODC (which was already more than 95 per cent full, while more than 40 per cent of the 'Ladies only' seats remained unoccupied). A short while later about 25 boys who were angered by the decision approached several batches of young girls occupying seats on the right-side section and ordered them to go and sit in the 'Ladies only' section and almost all of them obliged as more and more boys joined in. I and a few others were able to cool the tempers of both parties because there would have been a violent incident had anyone of the girls tried to resist. I am personally aware (I have also contacted all the other cinemas in Kandy and also those in Matale and in Colombo etc.) that no other cinema has seats reserved for 'Ladies only'. Even the Sigiri Cinema, which adjoins the Arena, and also the 2 balconies of the Arena has no section reserved for 'Ladies only'. Reserving seats for 'Ladies only' without reserving a section for 'Gents only' is not only unfair but also illegal. What right have the managers of cinemas to practise discrimination on patrons, sex or otherwise? A patron who has purchased a ticket has the right to sit in any seat of his or her choice. It is the hope of Kandy - cinemagoers that the authorities concerned will take immediate action to remedy this situation. T.B.A., S.W.R.D. considered a Federal set up long ago My contributions to the peace effort, ever since negotiations commenced between the Present Government and the LTTE appeared in the national press on several occasions. But the one that saw the print in the Press of August 30th 2002 titled in bold letters "S.W.R.D. considered a Federal set up long ago" delights me and gives me great pleasure today. Now that the present Government and the LTTE have both agreed upon to resolve this thorny issue under a Federal system. it is better I recall what I said in the contribution in a nut shell for the benefit of those who may not have read it. There is a notion in the minds of our people, both the Sinhalese and the Tamils, that the idea of Federalism was first mooted by S.J.V. Chelvanayakam. This wrong impression is the main cause for the Sinhalese to oppose this structure. The late respected leader S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike on his return to Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was known then, after having successfully completed his Oxford education, straightaway entered into politics. Young S.W.R.D. blooming with good ideas to solve several problems confronting the country then, realising that his motherland composed not only of Sinhalese, but several other races thought of something that would satisfy their respective aspirations, while keeping the country intact. Being a well read personality on many a subject he came to the conclusion that a Federal set up would be the ideal. However, after some time, having found that his good ideas and learnings will never take him to the top, kept aside those temporarily and came down to low level politics to capture power by hook or by crook. Having succeeded by this short cut way to the top position, the true and real Bandaranaike in him started to revive his learnings. This resulted in the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam pact. Going into details of this pact and why it did not materialise is a waste of time. But it should be noted that the pact was based on Federalism. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike is the father of Federalism and this fact is stressed in the centre page article of no less person than Dr. Kumar Rupesinghe, a reputed international peace negotiator and scholar in the Sunday Observer of December 8, 2002. To quote "S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike proposed a Federal solution as way back as the 1920s." What Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is trying to do now is to revive these good proposals left behind by learned men like S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike with certain modifications to suit the present situation. Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who embraces tightly her father's name Bandaranaike even after her marriage to emphasise that she is his daughter will never stand in the way of her father's dream then to materialise at least now. P.C.P. GNANADURAI, |
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