The Ed­u­ca­tion Com­mit­tee of the Na­tion­al Mus­lim Women’s Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NM­WOTT) host­ed a the­atri­cal pro­duc­tion ti­tled “A Good Son” on May 8 at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA).

The event brought to­geth­er stu­dents, teach­ers, and par­ents from 17 sec­ondary schools across south Trinidad, of­fer­ing them not on­ly a com­pelling dra­ma ex­pe­ri­ence but al­so a space for di­a­logue and re­flec­tion on some of the most press­ing is­sues af­fect­ing the school en­vi­ron­ment to­day.

“A Good Son,” writ­ten and per­formed by Iere Pro­duc­tions, was de­signed to mir­ror the re­al­i­ties of the class­room. It ad­dressed is­sues such as bul­ly­ing, peer pres­sure, lack of em­pa­thy, and re­spect—themes that con­tin­ue to chal­lenge stu­dents, ed­u­ca­tors, and fam­i­lies alike. The per­for­mance struck a chord with the au­di­ence, de­pict­ing re­lat­able sit­u­a­tions and spark­ing re­ac­tions from at­ten­dees.

“Our goal was to hold up a mir­ror to our stu­dents and com­mu­ni­ties,” said a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from NM­WOTT’s Ed­u­ca­tion Com­mit­tee. “We’ve ob­served over the years that the core val­ues of school life—re­spect, dis­ci­pline, em­pa­thy, and moral re­spon­si­bil­i­ty—are be­ing lost. This pro­duc­tion was our way of reignit­ing those con­ver­sa­tions and re­mind­ing every­one that ed­u­ca­tion is not on­ly about aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance, but about char­ac­ter and val­ues too.”

Fol­low­ing the play, stu­dents par­tic­i­pat­ed in an in­ter­ac­tive rap ses­sion fa­cil­i­tat­ed by Mr. Cur­tis of Iere Pro­duc­tions and Stephon Felmine, a fel­low ed­u­ca­tor from Mor­vant Laven­tille Sec­ondary School, where they were en­cour­aged to think crit­i­cal­ly about the play’s mes­sages. The ses­sion cre­at­ed a safe and en­gag­ing en­vi­ron­ment for open and hon­est dis­cus­sion and self-re­flec­tion, al­low­ing stu­dents to share their views on the is­sues por­trayed and ex­plore how they re­late to their own ex­pe­ri­ences.

Teach­ers and par­ents in at­ten­dance praised the ini­tia­tive with many ex­press­ing in­ter­ests in hav­ing sim­i­lar pro­grammes brought di­rect­ly in­to schools.