It is in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that we learn that the evil that men do lives after them but the good is oft interred with their bones. Far be it from me to gainsay the bard but I note without surprise that an “oft” is carefully inserted in his statement …
Read More »Street Vibes: Meet me on the pavement! Rowley points way to meaningful education for all
Since returning from my three-month sabbatical, I have been finding life on this rock we call home to be a real struggle. I have tried my best to refrain from commenting on the numerous instances of outrageous, silly behaviour and criminal acts in the news, be it on social or …
Read More »A QRC lament: Of emails, elite athletes, prestige schools, prizes and unpleasant surprises
Some of the Best people I know went, like me, to Queen’s Royal College: one brother, two sons and four nephews. And a throng of people the media-conscious public knows best also went to QRC. Here is a non-exhaustive list of QRC people who tend to be in the media …
Read More »Women PE teachers are the problem? Cameron and WICB should get with the programme
“The Physical Education curriculum, based at the Learning Resource Centre in McBean, Couva, has been headed by a woman and staffed heavily by women, generally trained teachers with years of experience teaching in schools. They are largely responsible for making Physical Education an examinable CXC subject and efforts to have …
Read More »Claude’s Comments: Out of Africa; Darwin, creationism and the truth about where we all came from
This week’s column is prompted by two reports last week that made global news. Although reproduced in local media, they would hardly have been expected to create waves within non-academic communities. One of these reports welcomed a new frontier of knowledge of human evolution: the CNN headline, “Modern fossil find …
Read More »No Holders Barred: Commandment to unwed girls: Thou shalt not open thy legs!
My heart is breaking for that young woman. You don’t know how it breaks my heart to know that the Ph.D student whose car was stolen some days ago recovered the vehicle but without her marine samples and research. It truly hurts. Although I don’t have a doctorate—yet!— I can …
Read More »Dear Editor: Small correction, Minister Garcia, school fights are not no big thing
“Minister [Anthony] Garcia, are the ‘shattered bones [in the] right elbow’ of Shareefa Ali and Chris Khan’s 9-year-old son–injuries sustained, as reported in the 3 February, 2017 Trinidad Guardian, as a result of a fight initiated by a bully and which required surgery—a ‘part of growing up’? “Is being ‘hit …
Read More »STREET VIBES: Backward Garcia must go if we are to go forward
The old adage “If yuh cyah beat them, join them” can be heard loud and clear behind the latest statement by that dinosaur OJT who has somehow found himself at the helm of education in Trinidad and Tobago. Instead of seeking to find creative ways of treating with the Ministry …
Read More »STREET VIBES: Hahaha, hee-haw, hee-haw but PNM’s donkey logic is no laughing matter
Prank or otherwise, there is nothing funny about rape. We are a nation which has seen its fair share of rapes over the years, many of the victims in their early teens. Despite the large number, however, I can remember not one single occasion when a rape was thought to …
Read More »My revered teacher: Daly’s tribute to the late Father Roland Quesnel
There are co-incidences in life that it is sometimes difficult to treat merely as co-incidences. My revered teacher died on Wednesday last, aged 90. Some years ago, he sent me a document entitled My Last Will with a request that I keep it for him “as an official document.” This …
Read More »Fryea’s Advice: Will the PNM even countenance the discord dumping the Concordat will cause?
A release from the Communications Department advertises the Ministry of Education’s National Consultation on Education. The release, dated 15 February, 2016, identifies the amendment of the Concordat as one of the items on the agenda. What!?!? Amend the Concordat? Absurd! Preposterous!! Why? Because concordats, once signed, cannot be amended without …
Read More »Master’s Voice: The re-colonisation calls of Bruce Gilley and our paralysis of analysis
Let me say, straight out the box, I have no issue with Professor Bruce Gilley for the same reason I was pleased that Donald Trump won the US elections. I see the storm brewing online and the many calls for retraction, apologies and so on. Reaction was swift, as was …
Read More »