24040: Nekita ( comments) on 10 New Year's Resolutions (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nlbo@aol.com

I believe Point # 9  “Investment in Education “ is a crucial one both in and
out of Haiti. As a 25 year veteran educator, I am seeing the lack of
education in Haiti having an adverse impact in the diasporic community. The level of
performance of students migrating here  since l985, l986 have been declining. I
can speak of Boston. Through friends and colleagues, I can concur the low
performance is occuring in other states as well. Since Haitian teachers don't
have a website, or a yahoogroups, or a newsletter, we are not communicating with
each other, I don't a formal figure. I am seeing a community in which even in
Boston with some many resources, educating the Haitian youth, investing in
children and in education is not a community wide issue. Yes, parents send their
children to school. But elements that make one succeed in US schools are not
present in the Haitian community. I have written several articles on this issue
in the Boston Haitian Reporter, Haitian web sites, and other local papers in
the Boston area.

The numbers of young Haitians going to prisons indicate also that we are
having less Haitians pursuing their education. Before Bob went to Ireland, someone
wrote regarding young Haitians increasingly going to prison in the Boston
area. I attribute that high incarceration rate to a lack of education from the
community’s stakeholders who don’t know or don’t seem to be interested in
investing to provide a bicultural environment to Haitians growing up in this
country.

I can’t agree more with number 9. Education should be a priority for Haitians
in Haiti and in the United States. Two generations down the road, Haitians
will not achieve as much in the United States if the lack of interest in
Education and print materials such as reading , writing, and the internet continues.

The original author wrote” Teacher training would be a good place to start.”
I would like to say” Comprehensive Collective Community training involving
the Haitian radios and TV hosts, newspapers, teachers and clergy in  major
diasporic communities would be a good start.

Happy New Year to all Corbetteers,

Nekita