MAVIS BECKLES: Parents got children so
UM IS TRUE: it is the parents who got the children so. Now last week I was talking ’bout teachers and the children who get send tuh dem evah single day fuh dem, not only tuh teach but tuh train and develop into good, decent, upright and respectable, law-abiding citizens.
This week I want tuh talk ’bout where duh come from and who got duh so.
Now I know a lot o’ people have voiced duh opinions ’bout how children should be brought up, what ya should do, who should or should not do what tuh dem, how it should be done, when, where and a whole lot o’ junk.
Sometimes when ya listen tuh some o’ these people, ya does have tuh wonder if duh talking ’bout real people or dollies ’cause leh muh tell ya, some o’ dem like duh think dat children doan be listening, tekking in evah single thing and working duh parents and teachers like Epsom salts.
Another thing is dat half o’ these people who does be bong-ing on pon evah call-in programme and airing off doan have chick nor child and nevah suh much as raise a chicken in duh life, far less a child but duh know evahthing.
Produce children
Now look, duh got people who say dat dem is parents – well, only because duh produce children. Anyway, dem is parents and duh got a couple o’ children in school.
Now the teachers know dat children at a particular age should be reading at a certain level but duh ain’t near there.
So the teacher give the children reading homework and duh have tuh read a couple o’ chapters every night. You would think dat the parents would insist dat the children read, but ya know something? A lot o’ the parents doan suh much as pick up a newspaper and skim through it, far less a book.
Some children nevah see duh mother or father reading nutten; of course, duh might see dem wid a phone in duh hands all the time. Duh might see dem watching movies. Duh might see dem sending text messages and reading wha’ pon duh phones; but a book?
So why should I have tuh read?
Another thing is this: you see some o’ the latest gadgets some o’ these children does have? The iPad, iPod, smartphone, BlackBerry and the works; evahthing tuh distract dem from picking up a book and reading it. Dat is too boring fuh dem, so duh cahn read.
At evah cock fight
Some parents does be out and about at evah cockfight, leaving the children wid older siblings, other family members or wid duh gran’parents and, look, duh got tuh be in the latest, hear?
More Remy than duh could mek. All ovah duh bodies scrawl up wid tattoos like dem is drawing books. The clothes duh wearing tight and small wid evahthing, top and bottom, at the door fuh evahbody tuh see.
I know a good few o’ dem like dat, and I could tell you ’bout one woman who now does be at her last child father but got two teenage children, not from him, going tuh high school and living wid duh aunts.
You think duh easy? You know what they would tell you if you tell dem anything ’bout it? Dat dem got a life too – as if somebody tell dem tuh go and get children.
Well as far as the boys are concerned, dem ain’t got nuh kinda example tuh follow.
The fathers cahn tell dem nothing because he doan drive a stroke and all day long he does be pon the block wid he pants dat got a belt in it all the way below he botsie and hanging wid the boys.
Duh want dah belt pulling out and dropping some good licks in duh tails. You would see how fast duh would get dem pants pull up.
All o’ these is why some o’ these children, both boys and girls, think dat dem could go in school and disrespect the female teachers. It is the way dem does carry on when duh outta school and hanging.
Dem tough so duh does want tuh fly up in the teachers’ faces and a lot o’ teachers young, ya see? So duh does try tuh frighten dem.
But my advice tuh teachers is, instead o’ tekking leave tuh do all this lot o’ studying, take leave and go and enrol in martial arts classes.
When duh come flying up at ya, drop dem in the ground and see if some o’ duh parents come.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.