Symptoms of a deeper issue

CHRISTINE DE VOLLMER

TONIA GOODING

IN LIGHT of data obtained from the TT Police Service pointing to an increase in reported pregnancies among minors over the last ten years, the feedback from Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Gender and Child Affairs, Ayanna Webster-Roy, that the issue of teenage pregnancy must have national engagement to ensure it is effective, is a very significant point.

“I’m calling on all of Trinidad and Tobago to remember we can protect all our nation’s children, it’s not solely the responsibly of the Government but the collective responsibility of every individual and if we start focusing on our children and ensure they are cared for and protected, then we will have stronger homes, stronger communities and ultimately a more stable Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.

If we as a nation look collectively at a solution, we will realise that values education is what is needed. Any education in healthy sexuality must encompass all that an individual must learn, from birth, that will prepare him or her to live a happy and permanent life as a couple.

In order to live happily and permanently with another person, one must learn, at the very least, to be generous, loyal, truthful, respectful, responsible, moderate in action, and a long list of other desirable virtues and skills. Which ultimately also create stable families and as a result stable communities and nation.

We need to ask ourselves what the reason behind this problem is. From an anthropological perspective, we understand that the human person tends to good, even though we are all prone to temptation. Our children and adolescents dream of true love, of being someone, of having a meaningful life. They were created for this. They deserve it. It is our duty and responsibility to give them the tools to reach these goals.

Another important area we need to teach both our young males and females is friendship and the discernment to choose well the groups one will belong to, what is real friendship, who are real friends, and who will be only acquaintances. Peer pressure and how to recognise it, how to resist it and how to influence in a positive way, both in person and online, are also vital.

For teenagers, we must begin to apply this full range of virtues and understanding of one’s own temperament to the changing emotions of adolescence. At this age, the person begins to see things independently through logical reasoning and to test his or her knowledge against new realities. It is an extremely important period in their lives and this testing must be understood, encouraged and accompanied.

For this reason it is important at this time to provide schools and families with materials containing model situations, options and human reasoning whereby students can see and understand the workings and results of integrity.

Students will be attracted to the logical, the healthy and the principled, if these are presented in a form they can identify with and be attracted to.

It is for this neutralising effect that the Alive to the World programme was conceived and developed. The human brain is constructed for what is good and logical, a prerequisite for pursuing aspects of security and significance (self-esteem).

This new pedagogy owes much to a very varied list of wonderful researchers in the field – Viktor Frankl, Piaget and Likona, Kohlberg and Isaacs, among many others.

This programme has been used in over 22 countries all over the world, in eight different languages, and has seen tremendous success – when properly implemented – in effecting change in many areas, including reduction in teenaged pregnancies.

The local representative for this programme is Communities Alive Education and Training. For further information feel free to contact us through our website: www.caettt.com

Alive to the World: Addressing social ills by building character in the next generation.