Lessons in Carnival?

Just imagine; lessons in Carnival as a way to stem school violence, illicit sex, and drug abuse by school kids. Whatever will these geniuses think of next.

In my day, we didn't need to have lessons in Carnival. It's not that kids didn't have sex, or that some didn't use ganja -- which was the big drug back then. The problem is the school violence, which the Ministry of Education seems to think is Carnival related.

Sheer nonsense! Listen to Sparrow's "Royal Jail" and Kitchener's "The Road Make to Walk." Carnival was associated with the violence of warring bands in those days. It was bottles and stones being pelted; cutlasses and chains being pulled from under the pans when one big band -- say Carib Tokyo -- met up with another big band -- say Despers. In those days, there were genuine pan man wars.

The problem with school violence in T&T is that Trinidad has become overly Americanized. Corporal punishment is no longer an option in schools, unless you want to be sued. The inmates are running the asylum, and, as is always the case, the inmates tend to commit all kinds of mayhem. The Ministry of Education would be better served putting a foot down on these young badjohns -- aka punks -- and their parents. Send your children to school ready for schooling, that is, well-disciplined and obedient to the teachers, or find schools for your children to go to. Enough of this watching tv/satellite/DVD/VHS and aping the worst of American culture.