Why Hazel, Why???
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| Protesting Student at Febeau Government Primary |
This came over CNC3’s newscast last night. It’s not so much the fact that this little girl is protesting that bothers me, in fact I’d rather have students protest than have them eat pigeon droppings with their lunches. It’s the sign that gets to me.
You have to wonder what a parent is thinking when she pushes such a placard into the hands of her daughter without giving a second thought to the propriety of a child referring to the Minister of Education by her first name.
Sadly, I guess this is where we are as a society isn’t it?
A school protest is such a commonplace occurrence now, that it’s hard for me to think back to a week when there wasn’t one, but surely it hasn’t become so commonplace now that parents toss respect out the window just as effortlessly as this, has it?
But in a country where parents beat and cuss teachers, this is the kind of thing that will just slip quietly under the radar.
9 Responses to “Why Hazel, Why???”
By ttfootball on May 1, 2007 | Reply
i have always disliked seeing these protests on tv with the children. somehow the parents think this makes the protest more poignant. Meanwhile we thinking “why they have these children doing this” I can never help but compare it to people begging for money with the child tagging along. it might be horrible of me, some of these people may be genuine, but i always think “meal ticket”
By Crankyputz on May 1, 2007 | Reply
I absolutely hate seeing children at protests, they are simply not able to make the choice to protest for themselves, instead are spoon fed issues….
Not sure where the respect has gone. But we are poorer for the loss of it.
By Dirk Dagger on May 1, 2007 | Reply
I saw that last night and thought the same thing. And if I’m not mistaken, I saw an adult pushing the sign in the child’s hand and adjusting it so it would be picked up by the camera. Exploitation is what I would call that.
By D Trini in Me on May 2, 2007 | Reply
Never like the idea of children protesting.
By nandi23 on May 2, 2007 | Reply
Childhood flies away to damn fast! man sometimes children should just be allowed to be children, while the adults if they are up to it, like Ms Hazel and parents of children with leaky toilets gather and try to find a soultion, if possible before the children get disease and thing!
By nandi23 on May 2, 2007 | Reply
oh opinion subject to change if Ms Hazel don’t step up to duty…
you got appointed there, well fix it already!
By Mani on May 4, 2007 | Reply
I agree that sight of children protesting isn’t at all pleasant, but I think that successive governments have ensured that this is the only avenue through which anything is achieved.
Dirk you’re right, the parent did shove the sign into her daughter’s hand.
By Anonymous on May 5, 2007 | Reply
As a teacher of the said school I will like to point out that the Ministry of Education have not yet fixed the problem to our satisfaction. In fact today the pump they installed earlier this week already started to leak causing us to have no water again. We dismissed at 1 pm today.
By TriniObserver on May 7, 2007 | Reply
Schools in Trinidad need to be funded and decentralized.
Why does “The Ministry” have to control everything directly?
But the day anything in Trinidad is decentralized is the day Trinidad falls apart–not because of the chaos that may ensue, but because Trinidadians seem to have a psychotic need for “control” of other people.
Have you ever seen the demeanour of anybody with any slight hint of “authority” over anyone else?