Clarendon College saving its boys
Published:Wednesday | October 21, 2015 | 8:35 AMShanique Samuels
CHAPELTON, Clarendon:
Violence in high schools is beginning to feature prominently among adolescent males and has propelled Chapelton-based Clarendon College into action to mitigate against acts of violence.
According to David Wilson, principal of the school, the administration has to be mindful that the students are from different environments, where they are affected by different circumstances that will influence what they do and how they will react to certain issues.
"Therefore, we try as best as possible to encourage a culture of friendship and togetherness. We encourage them to listen to each other and to be mindful of each other's feelings, and so we try to ensure that problems don't escalate to the point where they become violent," Wilson said. He told Rural Xpress that while the school is not immune to conflicts, it is able to control situations before they escalate into violence.
The focus of the school's biannual Boys' Day activities, held last week on the grounds of the institution, was to strengthen the overall development of its male students.
Guidance counsellor and one of the organisers of the day's activities Roseanne Pitter- Williams said that "as a nation, we need to tap into conflict resolution and begin to do so effectively so that we may begin to see a reduction in the country's crime rate. We want to ensure that our males are honourable not only in academics, but also in behaviour so they can make conscious decisions".
Guest speaker Dr Kavian Cooke used his life experiences and the stories of how he triumphed over his struggles to motivate the students to work hard to achieve their goals.
"Sometimes all they need is someone to tell them that the struggles they are going through are not going to last forever. All they need to do is determine where they want to go and then plot a course of how to get there, being mindful of the hardships, recognising that you can get over them by focusing and believing in yourself, paying no attention to the detractors, and when you get there, remembering those who helped you to achieve your goal," said Cooke, who is director of engineering at the University of Technology. He was the first and youngest person to complete his Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Calgary in Canada in two and a half years.