Milat treats small part of problem

AFTER SPENDING a greater part of my life in education, I am aware that there is empirical evidence that suggests that students who demonstrate ongoing inappropriate behaviour in the classroom (more often than not) can be predictive and correlates to underlying mental health, social or economic hardships that form part of the environment of which they exist. The acting-out in the classroom is only the light that appears on the dashboard, but the source of the condition goes far deeper than what meets the eye.

While the new initiative of enrolment in the Milat programme (boot camp) for recalcitrant students may be a temporary stopgap, and may provide some ease to the already challenged education system, it will not provide all the solutions towards remedying the root cause of the problem of classroom delinquency.

The peculiar part of this new initiative is that while there is focus (and justifiably so) on recalcitrant students, there seems to be no apparent attention being paid to young girls and boys (of school age) who choose not to attend school.

It is reasonable to infer that the benefits of conscription into Milat should extend to this truant population as well. Based on what is highlighted in newspaper reports, the vast majority of our criminal offenders (and gang members) comprise young people who are not attending school at all.

While crime and inappropriate behaviour are the acts that we are so badly impacted by on a daily basis (in and outside of the classroom), more deliberate attention should be placed on identifying the systemic causes that result in such behaviour.

A plethora of research points to many specific conditions and factors that are indelibly linked to crime and inappropriate social deportment. Heading the list is malnutrition, mental health disorders, homelessness, special needs (autism, ADHD, etc), and the list goes on.

Malnutrition in particular directly evokes physical changes in the cognitive development of children, altering their thinking, powers of reasoning, and characteristics of their judgement. In addition, some children are born with autism, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), ADD (attention-deficit disorder), hormonal imbalance in their brains, and other factors that result in altering a child’s personality, characteristics and behaviour.

Unless there is a dedicated plan to address these specific afflictions in our children, we will be spinning top in mud, as the old adage suggests. If the Milat programme brings with it interventions (administered and facilitated by professionals) that will address these ailments, then we will see some systemic change in the behaviour of our children in school.

There is no silver-bullet solution. Remedying the root cause would involve engaging our communities most in need, and presenting to them support services that align with specific circumstances and needs (physical, social, emotional and mental).

When a child has to go to school and sit in a classroom and stay focused, after having consumed sometimes only a slice of bread and a glass of water, our expectation of them to respond to the norms of respect, discipline and other courtesies in the classroom may be at times unrealistic. On returning home, that child may face the same meal for dinner, and the cycle continues, resulting in chronic malnutrition and an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex (PFC). A debilitating physical condition.

Without proper PFC function, it is difficult to act in consistent, thoughtful ways, and impulses can take over. Damage to the prefrontal cortex can have far-reaching effects, such as with YouTube star Logan Paul. ADD/ADHD, among other things, typically occurs because of neurological dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex.

Having an adequate school feeding programme is paramount to the physical development, and by extension the academic success, of our students. However, more importantly, ensuring that low-income families have an adequate food supply is absolute for our students to benefit.

I have only addressed one component of the many contributors to inappropriate classroom behaviour by students. Milat may be challenged to address them all. However, it is a start in the right direction.

While there is some evidence that suggests providing more restrictive, authoritarian environments for children may bring some benefits, this is usually short-lived, and when the student leaves this space the previous behaviour returns.

A case in point is that we have seen for many years in news reports that quite a few perpetrators of crime in our society have been either current or former members of our military or police force. These individuals would have been exposed to the most disciplined, regimented environment available to our citizens.

Please be assured that I am certainly not implying that the majority of members of the Defence Force or police service are criminals, but I do draw an analogy that their training protocols may have subtle synergies with what may be available in the Milat programme. I guess we can only wait and see when it is fully implemented, and formative and summative assessments are conducted, to evaluate its value.

In the interim, I can only advocate that the powers that be invest in intervention programmes in the communities where our children live, programmes that cater to a variety of needs (as mentioned earlier), and only then will we see any sustainable long-term change in the youth of the nation.

I leave you with a quote from the current governor of the Central Bank, from when he spoke recently on the impact of the environment that we live in (as referred to and published in the Newsday on November 20).

Dr Alvin Hilaire highlighted the influence that a person’s environment can have on their well-being. He stated, “Your mental health can be affected, your stress levels, your sense of community, even your prospects depending on where you are.” He added, “Inside the home, too, our spaces can profoundly affect us. People put to live in cramped, cluttered lodgings suffer.”

Important words of wisdom.

Arnold Corneal