I WAS READING last week’s SUNDAY SUN and came across stories by Roy Morris and part of it was about children getting permission tuh have cellphones in schools. Well, I started tuh read the various letters tuh be signed by both the students and the parents, but the one dat really get me vex was something by the Ministry of Education, like it was going tuh allow students tuh carry cellphones in schools. I stop reading dat one time.
I ain’t or doan agree wid Mary Redman pon a good few things, but ya see this thing ’bout leaving lil people wid cellphones in schools, talking ’bout putting dem pon vibrate, silence and all o’ dah junk? I am with her all the way. I doan agree wid it, I ain’t like it I think all o’ wunna begging fuh bare trouble.
You see children? Lemmuh tell ya, when ya give dem a inch, duh does take a ell. Give dem a horse and duh gine ride it pas’ hell – the old people does tell ya so. It means dat some people ain’t know when tuh stop or duh aint got nuh kinda conscience.
I know dat ya doan compromise wid these li’l people nowadays, hear? I doan know why we in Barbados like tuh do summuch copying and we always copying the wrong things – nevah the things dat will better us but always the ones dat does keep bringing down this peaceful place and then hollerin’ fuh “oops” and trying tuh catch dem back when it get outta hand.
It is one thing tuh bend fuh these parents who believe dat their child or children should have a cellphone pon dem all day but ya’all like ya doan realise dat the mothers and fathers just like the li’l children; evahbody doing the same thing: all o’ dem does be walking up and down wid a cellphone in duh hands from morning till night. Dem does think just like the children – well, after all, dem is children duh selves.
Look, wunna like wunna doan realise when you start tuh compromise wid li’l people duh does make you pay. Dem ain’t foolish, ya know. Duh street-smart and if yours ain’t so, he or she going tuh school and sitting down next tuh street-smart children, eating wid dem, talking wid dem and getting information and ideas from dem too.
Ya’all forget dat every school got in children from all ovah Barbados. Children from every type o’ home and every type o’ environment in Barbados. Ya’all think dat the lot o’ lawlessness dat going on might only be happening in the so-called lower schools in Barbados but wunna wrong. A lot o’ foolishness does be going on in all o’ dem other schools too because ya see dem phones? Children does be exposing and introducing one another tuh all kinds o’ things. So if wunna hi-fuh-loo-tant parents think dat wunna precious lil saints who wunna sending tuh school crisp and well spoken ain’t know the ropes like the other ones, wunna better think twice. Dem know!
You know the damage some o’ these children could do in schools wid cellphones? These children does be a step ahead o’ we all the time. I think we should shelve dat idea because, look, all like now dat wunna people at the ministry talking and trying tuh work out a way tuh make it happen, dem children networking and done know how tuh get around or even inside the system wid dem cellphones, hear?
I could see a decision like children having and using cellphones in school backfiring. I doan think dat enough thought has gone in tuh this knowing the things dat dem could do pon or wid the phone. Wunna doan realise dat when wunna eating, dem does be pon the phone and when wunna at work, dem does be pon the phone and when wunna out racking wunna brains tuh pay bills and make ends meet, dem does be pon the phone. I think wunna asking fuh trouble.
Miss Redman said dat you cannot begin tuh imagine the things children do with cellphones nowadays and I know good enough wha’ she talking bout . . . . but ya know something? I ain’t got nuh more space and I want tuh stan’ pon this topic li’l longer. So I gine continue it next week.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
