Ambergris Today | Letters To The Editor | Wake Up And Smell The Coffee!

Wake Up And Smell The Coffee!

San Pedro High Schoo, San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize

by Gustavo Ramirez, Guidance Counselor - First of all, let me thank all those San Pedro community members who responded (positively or negatively) online to the announcement of San Pedro High School’s new “In School Suspension” program. Our community’s involvement in everything that goes on in our schools is not only paramount, but absolutely necessary to help our schools to “bring out the best” in each student.

Schools do not/cannot work in isolation! To those of you who may still think that all you have to do is send students to school for several years, and the school must perform the miraculous job of turning out a “well-rounded” and productive citizen, I say: Wake up and smell the coffee! Schools are not miracle machines. Without your (the community) active participation our schools’ can do nothing other than teach the 3 Rs (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic).

However, in today’s world, we need far more than just the 3 Rs to get by. Perhaps, with your example, participation, and guidance, our students will have a path to follow to learn how to become successful and productive citizens, just like you.

Secondly, to all those who keep screaming that our school is not doing its job because it is not doing what it used to do, “when you were there”, let me say: Wake up and smell the coffee! We are now living in 2011 -- not 10, or 15, or 25 years ago. San Pedro High School was founded 40 years ago and started with less than 40 students. Today we have nearly 500 students. Unlike when our school was founded, each student today has access to cell phones (instant communication by voice or text), computers (internet and Facebook), television (anything they choose to see), and to so many other modern technological inventions.

Yesterday’s schools (administrators and teachers) did not have to compete with all those gadgets to get students’ attention, and still be able to “bring out the best” in them. Most of the students from “when you were there” came from families with two parents, and grandparents, and aunts and uncles and a community who looked out for them. So many of our students in 2011 come from ‘non-existent’ families, or single parent families, or from families where everyone is working, and no one has the time to “raise” the children. And yet, you still expect us, the school, to deal with all these students today the same way we dealt with students “when you were there”? Wake up and smell the coffee!

To those who served suspensions in the past by working hard for the Town Council, or by doing creative tasks that your Principal gave you, I say: It’s great that you got something from that hard work. However, the nearly 500 students who we work with today are NOT the same students who the school worked with “when you were there”.

Students today bring all sorts of emotional ‘baggage’ to school every day that students “when you were there” did not have. And, to “bring out the best” in each student today, we must deal with each one in a way that shows that we do understand where they’re coming from, and in a way that shows that we “care” how they turn out.

Do you actually believe that we can solve today’s rampant crime in Belize City merely by locking everyone away? Do we solve our problems at school by merely sending home all students who misbehave? We’d hardly have anyone left to teach! We have so, so many students whose parents think that they can do no wrong – yet those are the very students, who according to you, we should ‘expel’ and send out to work and clean the streets.

As a guidance counselor, I attempt to help students with problems by getting to the very root of what caused their problem: no one to guide them at home; way too many distractions for them, and no one to monitor them or ‘set them straight’; no one in the community to care why or how they do what they do. And, keep in mind that as a school we are supposed to educate – not also raise your children for you because you do not have the time nor interest.

Moreover, at one time, most of our students came from one primary school on this island. Today our nearly 500 students come from eight primary schools on this island, and from districts as far North as Corozal, as far South as Toledo, from various Central American countries, from USA, from China, and from England. Still think that we must deal with them every day here in school the exact same as “when you were here”?

Our students today have a guidance counselor whose job it is to:
* help students with academic achievement in high school
* help students with personal growth and development
* help students address discipline, attendance, or personal problems
* help identify “at risk” students and implement interventions to enhance success
* help students plan and prepare for post-secondary schooling
* help students plan and prepare for their work roles after high school

Are you suggesting that, because you did not have a guidance counselor “when you were in school”, then neither should the almost 500 students today? Are you suggesting that people should not use cell phones today because in your day everyone got along fine without cell phones? We must change with the times, and adapt to the times – not live in the past. There is a colorful, yet powerful, saying in the Spanish language: ‘El pescado por la boca cae’. I suggest to all those who are on the sidelines screaming and shouting down to our educators: think, before you start screaming!

Comments

October 14, 2011 - 10:01

well said Mr Ramirez. I am the single mother of an 11 year old boy, living in the US, and your battles echo my own. it is a daily fight to counteract the many influences in my child's life that could easily lead him down paths of his moral, ethical,mental and emotional degradation. The computers and internet are an endless supply of information, good, bad and ugly. Computer games which are at once amazing in their techology are also brutal and violent depicting war, death and killing in glorifying ways. The instant gratification of these influences is a mezmerizing draw for young minds, and life(not reality) is spoonfed to them through a monitor. When I was there(in school), backtalking a teacher was first dealt with swiftly and no nonsense by the teacher and principal, second by my mother and father. Now, i am the frontline. I have the responsibility to teach my child respect for himself first and foremost, secondly respect for adults, elders, and lastly that he will reap his Karma. He alone will answer for his actions. Schools are an extension of homes with regard to teaching but no means a replacement or cure-all for disconnected parents. While you can sometimes do all of the right things and still have a troubled child, if you put no effort into your child(ren) and are disconnected from their lives and outside influences, be afraid of the end result, be very afraid. You will get back what you put into your child. That is guaranteed.

October 13, 2011 - 14:53

You're doing an excellent job Mr. Ramirez. What people need to remember is that education starts at home. The school's job is to unlock the student's potential. Guidance councelling is to help guide and structure children's educational and vocational direction as they pass through an unstable and confusing time in their lives. Good "wake up call" for the parents. Keep up the good work Mr. councelor.

October 13, 2011 - 13:13

I say...Let the BIG MOUTHS sit in a class with students who are not so easily brought to attention WITHOUT using force and screams...they will end up screaming and running out of there.

Shut up if you dont knw what you are talking about.

October 13, 2011 - 12:57

WAKE UP AN SMELL THE COFFEE IS RIGHT!

As a teacher my self, I have been confronted with the same ignorant comment "When I was there...." People seem to believe that THEY know how to DEAL our kids. (Yes, I call them MY kids)
You can't talk if you know NOTHING about the subject area. So if you are not a parent, or a teacher,and you work in an office or where ever, where there is no interaction with the MILLENIUM babies (children born and raised since 1999) you have no right to say what you think is correct. Why? YOU JUST DONT KNOW. Assuming that students of today are the same as TEN or FIVE years ago is plain ignorance.

We cannot compare our kids to ourselves. We had differenct mentalities and let me say this, as a past student of SPHS - The teachers are now better, better equipped, well educated. So the fingers should not be pointed to ONE individual or the teachers. Point he finger the other way...PARENTS.

This is a team effort. If you discipline your child at home, then when you send them to me, I will solidify what you have instilled. The kids will be well rounded.

Dont send the kids, hoping for us to control them. IF they dont listen to YOU...HOW will they listen to me? A person they JUST met?

Think people....

and Why dont you go back, take the kids for an 80 minute period...maybe then you will WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE.

Great job counsellor. Hopefully parents are reading.
I support you in your cause.

Respect

October 13, 2011 - 03:54

I AGREE WITH ABOUT 88% OF ALL THAT....

[next]

IF JUST 1/2 THE STUDENTS PAY FOR AND EAT THIER LUNCH ,FROM THE FOOD HOUSE ...IN THE SCHOOL YARD...[a hot meal is better than junkfood...like outside the RC...walls..]THATS AN EASY $2500.00 EACH DAY..IN SALES...I SURE HOPE THAT THE DAILY PROFITS ARE GOING TO BETTER THE SCHOOL...AND THEREBY,,THE EDUCATION ATTAINED.........[i'm sure people would like to see some transparent facts on that subject..!!]

October 12, 2011 - 21:53

well said Mr. Ramirez!! When people start to realize that the role of a counselor is NOT just to "sit and talk with students and do nothing in an AC room", then they will appreciate the great job that Mr. Ramirez is doing with working with the students of SPHS.

October 12, 2011 - 15:19

Excellent response Mr. Ramirez. I am glad to see that San Pedro High is acknowledging the importance of counseling and mental health. I commend you for taking a stand on what you know is going to be the best outcome in the long run. People may not see it immediately, but I am optimistic about your program.

However, the community needs to realize this as well and work together to help students.

October 12, 2011 - 15:11

What a fantastic "wake up call." I love this letter. The counselor is so right. So many parents believe that the schools are there to raise their kids, teach them manners, mete out punishment and lavish them with awards and merits. Raising the children of the island is a community job. We must all do our part. The best way to raise upstanding citizens is to lead by example - show the students love, hope, compassion, respect, honesty, dilligence and ambition (to name only a few of lessons.)

As the counselor mentioned, many of our kids are dealing with a lot of "baggage." Some students are constantly late for school - not because they are lazy but because they need to get their little brothers and sisters to school first as their parents are already at work. With so many new island residents we find that the family support structure of grandparents, aunts and uncles are not factors in their lives - so many babysitting responsibilities now lie with the teenagers.

Incomplete school uniforms? Well when your only pair of shoes get soaked what can you wear while you wait for them to dry? Dirty uniforms - thanks to all the mud being splashed up by vehicles etc.

Alcohol use and teens in bars and night clubs? Why aren't they home studying or attending sports events with their classmates? Parents, we must be vigilant. We need to know where our kids are, who they are with, know what they are doing.

Yes, this is a team effort, but between us all we can raise a fine community of new island leaders, parents and business owner and hard workers.

I shall certainly wake up and smell the coffee.