Open Letter to the Ministry of Education: "We are only destroying our children's future"

Ministry of Education, Human Resource Planning, Vocational Training and National Excellence

2nd Floor Government Headquarters

Kennedy Avenue

Roseau

Commonwealth of Dominica

28th May 2020

Dear Sir / Madame

Every Society is Programmable

As a Dominican, whom has travelled and experienced the world, I write to you with a most important concern for my country, the future of our Dominican people and the Caribbean by extension. It has to do with the outdated concept of our early educational system. I will be brief. My Intention is to create a discussion throughout Dominica and the Caribbean and change it.

Many of the problems we have in our country today, stem from our failure to educate our pre- schoolers in a proper manner. I say this because the concept of the system we have been using to educate our future adults, at the level of kindergarten, is wrong.

No child should have to learn anything related to academics before 6 to 7 years of age. They need to be taught good societal values. These include togetherness, teamwork, conformity etc., which are fundamentally important to their future and the society as a whole. Every great journey starts with small steps.

The subconscious of every person is 90% formed by these ages. Thus, we are missing the greatest opportunity for benefiting our children and our society. We are only destroying our children's future and thus our society's future. Most of Europe, Canada and England, etc. use such educational concepts for decades.

Another very important point is that there exists too much negative reinforcement at that early stage of a child's mental development. People need to stop shouting at their children. This only reinforces negativity when they become adults. We need to use much more positive reinforcement, at those tender ages. In other words, we need to praise our children every time they do anything remotely good and gently explain to them when they have done something wrong.

My questions are why are we still using a decades old and outdated educational system? Why have our phycologist, educators and people, in the know, allowed this system to continue to impact our people and society negatively, even in 2020. Although this is not my field of work, I am available to assist with this concept. It is your job to investigate and rectify this outdated early educational system.

Regards

Dipl. Ing Jenner B M Armour, BSc