Is­sues around in­dis­ci­pline, par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in the school en­vi­ron­ment, have been gen­er­at­ing much dis­cus­sion and to a larg­er ex­tent, a lot of the de­bates seek to as­cribe blame in­stead of iden­ti­fy­ing root caus­es and work­able so­lu­tions. From where I sit as a par­ent, teacher/train­er, mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er as well as head of the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Re­source Net­work, in­still­ing dis­ci­pline in chil­dren MUST be­gin in their pri­ma­ry en­vi­ron­ment which is in the home as it is para­mount for every area of the child’s de­vel­op­ment. Every el­e­ment of learn­ing to which chil­dren are ex­posed to must start with ap­pro­pri­ate dis­ci­pli­nary mech­a­nisms that shape their val­ue sys­tem around re­spect for self and oth­ers.

Aus­tralia be­came an in­de­pen­dent na­tion on Jan­u­ary 1, 1901, when the British Par­lia­ment passed leg­is­la­tion al­low­ing the six Aus­tralian colonies to gov­ern them­selves. Since then Aus­tralia has fought in World Wars 1 and 2, the Ko­re­an, Viet­nam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, built rep­utable com­pa­nies with an in­ter­na­tion­al reach, or­gan­ised an im­mi­gra­tion sys­tem to fa­cil­i­tate its growth and de­vel­op­ment, dealt with an on­go­ing refugee cri­sis and has two of the largest nat­ur­al gas projects in the world, Pre­lude and Drag­on. Yet it still refers to it­self as a “young” coun­try.

It’s that time of year again when the dreams of red-blood­ed Trinida­di­an par­ents of 11-year-old chil­dren turn to night­mares and their lives fill with anx­i­ety as they pon­der and won­der at the SEA ex­am, which they all would fail mis­er­ably if they had to take and which their chil­dren are sub­mit­ted to.

Is­sues around in­dis­ci­pline, par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in the school en­vi­ron­ment, have been gen­er­at­ing much dis­cus­sion and to a larg­er ex­tent, a lot of the de­bates seek to as­cribe blame in­stead of iden­ti­fy­ing root caus­es and work­able so­lu­tions. From where I sit as a par­ent, teacher/train­er, mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er as well as head of the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Re­source Net­work, in­still­ing dis­ci­pline in chil­dren MUST be­gin in their pri­ma­ry en­vi­ron­ment which is in the home as it is para­mount for every area of the child’s de­vel­op­ment. Every el­e­ment of learn­ing to which chil­dren are ex­posed to must start with ap­pro­pri­ate dis­ci­pli­nary mech­a­nisms that shape their val­ue sys­tem around re­spect for self and oth­ers.

Aus­tralia be­came an in­de­pen­dent na­tion on Jan­u­ary 1, 1901, when the British Par­lia­ment passed leg­is­la­tion al­low­ing the six Aus­tralian colonies to gov­ern them­selves. Since then Aus­tralia has fought in World Wars 1 and 2, the Ko­re­an, Viet­nam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, built rep­utable com­pa­nies with an in­ter­na­tion­al reach, or­gan­ised an im­mi­gra­tion sys­tem to fa­cil­i­tate its growth and de­vel­op­ment, dealt with an on­go­ing refugee cri­sis and has two of the largest nat­ur­al gas projects in the world, Pre­lude and Drag­on. Yet it still refers to it­self as a “young” coun­try.

It’s that time of year again when the dreams of red-blood­ed Trinida­di­an par­ents of 11-year-old chil­dren turn to night­mares and their lives fill with anx­i­ety as they pon­der and won­der at the SEA ex­am, which they all would fail mis­er­ably if they had to take and which their chil­dren are sub­mit­ted to.