WE live in a world that unveils itself in all its rawness—not that it was not that way before—with nations guided by the impulses of need, greed, survival and ego. But my reflections are not directed at conflicts in the past, or that now exist or threaten. Rather, in our own colloquial realms, one has only to explore our newspapers today to gaze at the casualties of the times: multiple domestic disputes, husband against wife and family, brother against brother, and friends transmuting into bitter, deadly foes. Unlike acts of perversion—and though we can translate some actions to narcotics and alcohol—some actions can even be ascribed to a possible infiltration of rogue pharmaceuticals with great promises. How is this so? How do folks get caught?

The difference between then and now—to reflect on the childhood of yesterday—requires that we understand there were always spoilt brats full of entitled behaviour; likewise, there were also advantage takers. But there were avenues of engagement that embraced both brawn and intellect, separating and enhancing each. There were sports, and there was a stage where drama and art were ‘lords’. Thus, each triumphed within its own world. I’m not too sure that we have resembling forces within the echelons of the young today. Most of the teachers who tried were known to me to be active when RESCU existed (RESCU was an anti-drug-use initiative targeting the young, allowed to enter schools by progressive teachers and Ministry officials, and which I had organised along with other colleagues).

Another ingredient back then was the oversight of the “learning legions”; to this, I harken to the school inspectors who, back then, visited the homes of children who were absent from school—at times for most of the school year. These were serious former teachers who would accost parents on the value of an education, even threatening legal pressures upon them.

More than all, within the school system, activities like reading and the follow-up exploration of characters in the literature were studied with the intention of shaping young minds to understand the bad and the good. Their values were subtly inferred, moving toward a better awareness of a world that rarely could be described, in any ‘Human Age’, on any continent, as righteous and void of error—when subject to the dictates of religious voices, the military orders of tribal service to kings and emperors, and the utterances of prophets and priesthoods.

The fact is, today, in the realm of ‘Social Media’, there’s no child’s play. The content is mainly adult. So how do we guide our young to maintain trust in self, when all that dances on the stage—and the world that envelops them—is not defined enough for them to understand what is in their interest?

Parents have to take this article into their own hands. Visit Austin’s Bookstore. Let the children choose a book they would like to read. Enter their world—there’s space for you. Parts of the Odyssey had to be read to me before I truly explored it as a young adult and went on to read about the Haitian Revolution and then 1763… and I’m not alone.