Doctor says SEA is child abuse!

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

http://m.guardian.co.tt/columnist/2016- ... hild-abuse

So the poor children have finished another SEA. I feel so sorry for them and for all of you who have such bad memories of primary school days in T&T. I was fortunate, my parents moved to Venezuela while I was in what was called the scholarship class at Tranquillity Boys and I did most of my primary education in American schools at oil company camps. Secondary education was at boarding school, the Abbey School up Mt St Benedict, which was not that pleasant but at least sports were encouraged and pedophilic priests, local and foreign, relatively uncommon, once you made it clear you were not interested.

It’s always fascinated me, however, to hear so called big, hard-back men, not that there are many here, complain about their experiences in primary and yet stand aside to allow their children to go through the same mind-killing experiences. Amongst the worst is that 11 plus exam or SEA, whatever the technicians in the Ministry of Education, a mindless oxymoron if there ever was one, decide to call it.

Let me tell you why.

Children learn by playing. If a child does not play they do not develop their fine and gross motor skills, their body awareness and social competence and emotional maturity. Play supports children’s emotional development. It provides a way to express and cope with feelings.

School success largely depends on children’s ability to interact positively with all their peers and adults. I do not define school success as coming first in test. T&T is full of people who came first in test in primary school and are now considered failures and unhappy ones at that. Even most of the so-called successful ones are unhappy with their life because they have never learned to express and cope with their feelings.

Play develops creative thought and expression. In 1958 Sigmund Freud suggested that every child at play “behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, rearranges the things of his world in a new way which pleases him.” Creative thought enhances problem solving. Creative thought, whether adult or child, has its roots in play. When young children use their imaginations in play, they learn to be more creative and therefore perform better at school tasks.

Our children are not being allowed to play in schools. Parents tell me that their children are not allowed to go outside for recess any more. It not safe. They will sweat. They could fall down and hurt themselves. The reasons are multiple but stupid. They are stifling children.

Then you have the ridiculous exams. Children are pressured to learn by rote to pass exams. Critical thinking skills and creativity and the possibility of getting involved in practical science, engineering, programming, cooking, gardening and so on is frowned upon. All the fun and initiative in learning is taken away. Creativity is pushed out. Independence disappears. Fun is now considered a special occasion. So the child learns that fun is bad. Play is bad. He is told so. Work is good.

The dull child who learns woodenly is praised. The lively one is sent to someone calling themselves a “psychologist” (there are dozens of such frauds in the country), who “diagnose” ADHD (and for good measure, “a hint of ADHD”… like a “hint of pregnancy”) plus a learning disability and anxiety disorder. There are doctors around waiting to give medications for this when all that is needed is some common sense and a change of teacher or school.

Our curriculum is far too focused on tests. There is no balance in the curriculum. It lacks arts, music and PE and areas of learning that are vital to physical and emotional health and balance in life. Exams teach children that stress, competition and overreaching is normal which can then affect the mental and physical health of the child. So they learn that that is fine and that is what is expected of them.

We should do what parents recently did in the UK. Boycott these exams. True the protests were sporadic. Only about 30,000 parents (out of about 750,000) went on strike but it was the first time that so many came out and refused to allow their children to be abused. Because the SEA is child abuse. It’s emotional child abuse. Have any of you tried to take the SEA? I have and I failed. I’m in good company it seems. Last Tuesday a UK Minister of Education failed a language question on live radio while he was trying to defend the 11 plus exam.

Take the test yourself.

Re the sentence, “I went to the cinema after I’d eaten my dinner.”

“Is the word ‘after’ there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?”

I don’t know about you but I fail right away. What in heaven’s name is a subordinating conjunction? And why do I have to learn nonsense like that when I will never, ever, use it. So you start to get that queasy, hollow feeling in the middle of your stomach and you start to sweat. You’re failing! You know how that affects an 11-year-old? A failure at 11! Why don’t we ask the Minister of Education and some of his advisers to take their SEA exam, live, on television?

No they won’t do that. They too busy planning how to pose in three months time with the poor children who come in the top ten.

[zoom rader]

I still remember when I passed for Coffee Boys post primary

[BrotherHood]

Hmm, you do good.
I passed for St. Anns Life Center.

[zoom rader]

Hmm, you do good.
I passed for St. Anns Life Center.

Is no joke I did in fact attend post primary, due to no fault of mines

[De Dragon]

Hmm, you do good.
I passed for St. Anns Life Center.

Is no joke I did in fact attend post primary, due to no fault of mines

???
In my days you were placed in post-primary once you completed Common Entrance, but the classes were in the same school.

[zoom rader]

Hmm, you do good.
I passed for St. Anns Life Center.

Is no joke I did in fact attend post primary, due to no fault of mines

???
In my days you were placed in post-primary once you completed Common Entrance, but the classes were in the same school.

Yeah I did common entrance and did not get enough marks for a Jun sec, so ended up post primary at coffee boys.

[16 cycles]

Re the sentence, “I went to the cinema after I’d eaten my dinner.”

“Is the word ‘after’ there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?”

wtf

+1 here @ fail....

[De Dragon]

Hmm, you do good.
I passed for St. Anns Life Center.

Is no joke I did in fact attend post primary, due to no fault of mines

???
In my days you were placed in post-primary once you completed Common Entrance, but the classes were in the same school.

Yeah I did common entrance and did not get enough marks for a Jun sec, so ended up post primary at coffee boys.

What I meant was everyone went to post-primary. When results came out, some simply remained until they could complete their School Leaving Certification.

[zoom rader]

Hmm, you do good.
I passed for St. Anns Life Center.

Is no joke I did in fact attend post primary, due to no fault of mines

???
In my days you were placed in post-primary once you completed Common Entrance, but the classes were in the same school.

Yeah I did common entrance and did not get enough marks for a Jun sec, so ended up post primary at coffee boys.

What I meant was everyone went to post-primary. When results came out, some simply remained until they could complete their School Leaving Certification.

Well I remained in standard 6 for a short time

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Yeah I did common entrance and did not get enough marks for a Jun sec, so ended up post primary at coffee boys.

oh so yuh chupid long time now?!

Re the sentence, “I went to the cinema after I’d eaten my dinner.”

“Is the word ‘after’ there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?”

wtf

+1 here @ fail....

it's a preposition right?

conjunctions are words like although, because, since etc

my 8yr old son is doing conjunctions in English Grammar in Standard 2 right now.

I'd fail SEA for sure.

[Morpheus]

Yeah I did common entrance and did not get enough marks for a Jun sec, so ended up post primary at coffee boys.

oh so yuh chupid long time now?!

Re the sentence, “I went to the cinema after I’d eaten my dinner.”

“Is the word ‘after’ there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?”

wtf

+1 here @ fail....

it's a preposition right?

conjunctions are words like although, because, since etc

my 8yr old son is doing conjunctions in English Grammar in Standard 2 right now.

I'd fail SEA for sure.

Not you alone nah...

[cadman]

@zoom haha i went coffee boys too back when it was half day.....

brown boy was my Standard 5 teacher... the only child inspiration i get was brown boy and his guava whip. lol it inspired me to pass for St. Benidict coll(a)ge Lol

[RBphoto]

I wish I would have just stayed home, plant bodi, bhaigan and tomatoes and sell side of the road. Seriously, all this education crap just making more work for me and less time to enjoy art and life. Plenty of my pals who dropped out after junior sec doing mechanic, welding and farming have bigger house than me (Paid for) and driving ClubS and maxima and hilux and ting.

[zoom rader]

:D @zoom haha i went coffee boys too back when it was half day.....

brown boy was my Standard 5 teacher... the only child inspiration i get was brown boy and his guava whip. lol it inspired me to pass for St. Benidict coll(a)ge Lol

Wow kool, Brown Boy was also my teacher. Was licks like peas with his short strap

[cadman]

Wow kool, Brown Boy was also my teacher. Was licks like peas with his short strap

what year you left? i left in 1979.

[Ronaldo95163]

lol idek the answer to tht english qn

I rem i fall asleep in the cxc english exam and all

SEA english hard from long time too...english hard in general

[De Dragon]

lol idek the answer to tht english qn

I rem i fall asleep in the cxc english exam and all

SEA english hard from long time too...english hard in general

We can see that!

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

I wish I would have just stayed home, plant bodi, bhaigan and tomatoes and sell side of the road. Seriously, all this education crap just making more work for me and less time to enjoy art and life. Plenty of my pals who dropped out after junior sec doing mechanic, welding and farming have bigger house than me (Paid for) and driving ClubS and maxima and hilux and ting.

there are many examples worldwide where A students end up working for C students.

[ruffneck_12]

Have you all seen the type of projects they give to children?
STD3/4 children getting highschool level assignments and sheit. Plenty research involved.
Research that the PARENTS end up doing because the volume is too much for a child.


Children are forced to be adults at younger ages, but the age of consent is 18.

(just something to think about, not advocating pedophilia [ya hear that FBI?])

[X_Factor]

Yeah I did common entrance and did not get enough marks for a Jun sec, so ended up post primary at coffee boys.

oh so yuh chupid long time now?!

Re the sentence, “I went to the cinema after I’d eaten my dinner.”

“Is the word ‘after’ there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?”

wtf

+1 here @ fail....

it's a preposition right?

conjunctions are words like although, because, since etc

my 8yr old son is doing conjunctions in English Grammar in Standard 2 right now.

I'd fail SEA for sure.

Not you alone nah...

parts of speech is one of the most difficult topics in the std 4/5

i think the word 'after' is joining two clauses so it seems to take the role of the conjunction there

[De Dragon]

I really believe that a merit based assessment before the main final exam is the way to go. If it was implemented improperly by the previous Government and scrapped, then the new Government should be looking to getting consultation from the stakeholders and revising it. Don't stop at primary either, implement college credit courses for secondary schools so that students enter college with credits already inside for work already covered.

[zoom rader]

:D @zoom haha i went coffee boys too back when it was half day.....

brown boy was my Standard 5 teacher... the only child inspiration i get was brown boy and his guava whip. lol it inspired me to pass for St. Benidict coll(a)ge Lol

You know Partick Khan?

[ingalook]

Just scrap the damn thing and zone the kids.

Then we will see how good the "prestige" schools really are.

Will reduce traffic as well

[Closeout Deals]

Yeah I did common entrance and did not get enough marks for a Jun sec, so ended up post primary at coffee boys.

oh so yuh chupid long time now?!

Re the sentence, “I went to the cinema after I’d eaten my dinner.”

“Is the word ‘after’ there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?”

wtf

+1 here @ fail....

it's a preposition right?

conjunctions are words like although, because, since etc

my 8yr old son is doing conjunctions in English Grammar in Standard 2 right now.

I'd fail SEA for sure.

Not you alone nah...

parts of speech is one of the most difficult topics in the std 4/5

i think the word 'after' is joining two clauses so it seems to take the role of the conjunction there

Students Companion FTW f**k Google.

[RBphoto]

I wish I would have just stayed home, plant bodi, bhaigan and tomatoes and sell side of the road. Seriously, all this education crap just making more work for me and less time to enjoy art and life. Plenty of my pals who dropped out after junior sec doing mechanic, welding and farming have bigger house than me (Paid for) and driving ClubS and maxima and hilux and ting.

there are many examples worldwide where A students end up working for C students.

Worst is in Naps they make you feel you feel that all your bosses going to be coming out of Naps, Presentation and Hillview. Then you graduate from UWI and get a shiddy engineering job and your employer sends you on a secondment to a small time contractor and your new "Boss" is a high school dropout from Barrackpore Senior and he is actually well respected for his knowledge, experience, professionalism and honesty wherever you all go to do work.

[BRZ]

So if we were to do away with SEA, what are our Immediate plans? do we switch to a year of continuous Evaluation? do primary schools have to be revamped to have a standard 6,7,8,9 and so forth?
There will still have to be Some form of assessment to place the more Educated students into the More Academically driven Secondary schools.

[trump2016]

.....

[X_Factor]

Just scrap the damn thing and zone the kids.

Then we will see how good the "prestige" schools really are.

Will reduce traffic as well

I dont think you can zone just so as the child has the right to a school of their choice once there is space
that's why someone from grande can go to saghs or hillview etc

[cadman]

@Zoom yea.. I know Patrick..(sis name is Blaine.. his mom was a teacher in the girl school ). we was in brownboy's class together.. LOL.. small world.. i don't know if you remember Curtis Dyette, Don Habib, Arden Thomas LOL.. good ole days we will never see again...

[zoom rader]

@Zoom yea.. I know Patrick..(sis name is Blaine.. his mom was a teacher in the girl school ). we was in brownboy's class together.. LOL.. small world.. i don't know if you remember Curtis Dyette, Don Habib, Arden Thomas LOL.. good ole days we will never see again...

I was in Patrick class. Don Habib was a year ahead of me.