The Intersection of Gender, Culture and Education: Jamaica: The Next 50 Years!

Recently, the Jamaican minister, Portia Simpson Miller, addressed the issues of child abuse and neglectful parents. She added that the state was going to do in its power to hold negligent parents accountable. No one can argue with her on this point, as all well thinking Jamaicans will concur that we must do more to eradicate child abuse as a scourge affecting the society. However, one issue which was not mentioned by the Prime Minister and which was probably an oversight is the State’s neglect of its children. There are many places of safety or children’s homes which are under-funded. In fact too many of these institutions lack the required financial resources to impact the lives of their wards in a meaningful way. This is also a form of abuse. The continued shortfall in budgetary support from the state lends itself to child abuse as in many instances these children are not adequately supervised due to the lack of personnel. As a result their development and full potential are hijacked

As a society we continue to clamour for meaningful transformation of Jamaica’s education system. By now we all realize that there is a disconnect between what passes off as education and how this is perceived and received by our students. The time has come for us to adapt a bottom up policy approach in moving forward and transforming the education system. We must listen to our students more and use this to plan programmes and policies to inspire and motive our students.   Student engagement has become one of the new buzz phrases in education. Educators are always bombarded with questions about how they plan to engage their students. However, for many educators the process of engaging disconnected students becomes more challenging with each academic year. Engaging disconnected students can be achieved by first addressing the relevance of the content being taught. We must ask ourselves whether the information being taught is relevant to what the student needs to learn. Most students b

Being different should not be an issue, being treated differently is the problem. Embrace each person uniqueness and stop the discrimination and bullying. We all belong to one race, the human race.

“Every person needs to take one day away.  A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence.  Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”- Maya Angelou Vacation is extremely important in the scheme of things in reinvigorating the human body and mind.   With the normalization of US/Cuba relations the Caribbean island will certainly be ranked among the favourite destinations for relaxation and recreation. It is very clear that the Obama administration is extremely serious about normalizing relations with Cuba. On Tuesday, May 5 th, 2015 it was announced that the Miami based Baja Ferries, which operates a passenger service based in Mexico was issued a license from the US Treasury Depa

The world continues to change at a rapid pace. In some regards the change which is unfolding in front of our eyes is very much frightening, while on the other hand change, in and of itself can be a welcoming concept which bodes well for human sexuality and development. Human sexuality has not been spared these changes and this was clearly reinforced recently in the United States of America where the former Olympian Bruce Jenner who was born male came out in a television interview as transgendered after struggling for many years with his gender identity.    Gender identity refers to one’s core conviction of being a man, woman, or another gender such as transgender. One’s gender identity is who you feel as if you are on the inside. However, there are many people who are at odds with their biological sex that is the way your body was made. Most people see themselves as either male or female. Indeed some people refer to themselves as transgender or ‘trans’ because they were born biologica

  Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.

O come, let us sing unto the Lord : let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.   Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.