Keep teaching them right

Latwell Nyangu

Youth Interactive Writer

Parents, guardians and tutors try so hard to inculcate us in all the right things, teaching good from bad, explaining choices and consequences.

But the ball is always in our courts, to play or throw.

What caught my attention is some lack of direction and bad behaviour in colleges which is not just a fleeting concern voiced in the last few months but every time. Indiscipline among students has become so rampant that people freely criticise us as students.

In most instances, the subject of this nature has long been debated and has featured repeatedly on college as well as national agendas. However, whenever the subject crops up in public debate, no positive conclusion seems to emerge because the contenders quite often appear to ask the wrong question – “Who is to blame?” The problem can better be tackled perhaps if we address the question, “Who is responsible for our mishaps fellow students?”

Who is responsible for behaviour and good order in colleges? At face value the answer is the college administration and the lecturing staff. In fact, the college administration is responsible for all that goes on in college, be it positive or not.

While the above assertion is valid, one cannot leave out an important factor in the whole equation. While the lecturing staff is in constant contact with its students, parents who are also important stakeholders in their children’s education, carry a significant weight by providing the stable home background that help children fit in their college.

Parents should also fully support the educational endeavours of the college administrators, lecturers and other ancillary workers, who together provide opportunities for students to grow and develop in a sound and meaningful manner.

With all such efforts, it takes one stupid student fool to destroy such wisdom from our elders.

Before I utter a few words, let me get a few highlights on what transpired on Valentine’s Day.

Hopefully you had a good one, fellow students.

I saw many fellow students receiving gifts from their loved ones and it was a pleasure seeing you guys being appreciated.

Love is a good thing, he or she who gets some to love ought to love in return.

While some were enjoying themselves, some were left disappointed after no one remembered them.

But still we live, life goes on, another time will come to those who did not get.

At times, some things should be let go since you don’t even know who bought them those presents. You never know, maybe they will have to work for those presents, while some are from the right people.

It’s nice to receive a gift but let our parents teach us right.

My story this week is based on who is to blame for our failures, mischiefs, promiscuity among other damning perceptions upon us.

I borrowed some verses from the late Lucky Dube’s song “Teach the world”.

“Wherever you go, teach them right. It takes a million lives, to get the respect you deserve, when people see your kind. Some of them would run a mile.

‘Teach the world (about your nation), teach them right (teach them about), teach the world (about your people), teach them right (teach), teach the world (about your culture), teach them right.

The reasons for borrowing these few words are based on teaching them right.

For the destruction of the world, take it upon yourself.

But even if we are taught the right things, whose fault is it that we are like a crazy generation of students? Our characters have been tainted. But whose blame is it?

Our parents keep saying, they are teaching us well, they are teaching us to take the right route.

While college administration also keeps saying, they are working hard to help us be good individuals. But we are still found wanting.

The promiscuity, the drunkenness, stealing, selling of property, attacking our elders, blessers among other issues.

Are we not getting the right teachings?

My advice is keep teaching them right. To get the respect you deserve, you need to maintain a good name.

We all play the blame game but everyone has someone to blame. No parent would want their children to go astray. No guardian wants their children to be an embarrassment.

So where are we getting all these bad habits? Who is to blame?

In policy making, there is a need to identify the problem and once it has been identified then it is rectified.

No college can work well for children if parents and teachers do not act in partnership on behalf of the children’s best interests

Most of the parents today are working and have no time to discuss vital issues with their sons and daughters. They try to compensate for time with money. But money cannot help instil good values. The fear barrier no longer exists in our society and parents easily give way to children’s repeated demands without realising the consequences. This is a dangerous sign of decadence and anti-social ills.

Let us consider the concept that advocates responsibility as one of the central characteristics of a well-ordered college. The only reasonable and meaningful alternative to college indiscipline and lack of good order, in my way of thinking, is to revise how we are groomed. There is a need to train students from an early age to gradually assume responsibility for their learning in college.

What do we do with the students who, no matter what positive action the college takes, constantly exhibit antisocial behaviour? 

Some have been advocating that the student who cannot be made to see the sense of his or her misconduct, ought to be clustered together in one college and special provision be made for their “reformation”.

This argument is flawed as it is reminiscent of years gone by.

Students are the builders of a nation. 

They are the symbol of creativity. When they indulge in destructive acts, what will the future hold?

We must sort out the reasons so that they may be uprooted in order to give a secured present and future to our students.

Keep teaching them right.