Has respect for authority completely disappeared?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I started working at a high school in rural Jamaica recently, and was completely shocked at the current state of the school system. Students no longer behave like students, and even with strict punishment, rules are not followed.

As a young teacher, I reflect on my own school days – which were not so long ago – and I can’t help but wonder: what went wrong? At devotions, students barely cooperate for even 40 minutes. During prayers, instead of reverence, all you can hear are whispers of gossip, and all you can see are blank, distracted stares. In my time, every student participated in singing, and there was a clear acknowledgement of God.

Students now speak to teachers however they please, without fear of consequences. Has respect for authority completely disappeared?

Yes, measures can be implemented to ensure some level of conformity, but is this enough? Can we confidently attribute this decline to COVID-19, or is the problem much deeper?

What can teachers do to fix this when the same behaviours are exhibited at home? A child is now readily prepared to retaliate – even aggressively – if a teacher so much as verbally corrects them. Something must be done to save our children and, by extension, our society and our country. Jamaica’s future lies in the hands of these young adults. If we do not act now, what will become of us?

VB