Related to the Greek notion of educere, education is to bring
forth or cultivate potential. Education is a process of inviting truth and
possibility. Schools are therefore an embodiment of our singular and collective
commitment to the ideal of education.
Although not optimal, schools provide a social and physical environment
in which hopeful and respectful nurturing of human potential can happen.
Schools have a unique, and unequaled capacity to enable formation that comes
through knowledge, ideas, beliefs, concepts and visions of society, culture and
civilization.
I like to think about schools as hallowed places. But the recent
epidemic of school fires in Kenya is perhaps an emphatic demonstration that my
view is not shared, especially, by the students who have set ablaze over 100
schools in 2016. Learning for thousands
of students is now disrupted. The loss in property and damage to school
infrastructure runs into billions of shillings. How did we get here?
Just like any society, we have faced our dark moments. In December 2007
we pushed our country to the precipice of Armageddon. The social and political
foundations of this country were shattered, the country nearly fell apart and
we lost our innocence. Since the post-election violence, our aspiration for national
unity and common purpose has never been more hollow and doubtful.
But I think this epidemic of school infernos is our darkest hour. These
fires implicate two things that are at the core, the essence of the present and
future of our society; education and youth. In my view no amount of provocation
can justify reckless evil at such a scale. Maybe I am wrong because as Phillip
Zimbardo in his seminal book, The
Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil, demonstrates that it is possible, given under certain situational factors
for good people to become perpetrators of evil.
I believe that our children are not innately
evil or nihilist. According to Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi, the high
priests of the lucrative exam cheating business are fighting back and inciting students
and teachers to burn schools. Former President Mwai Kibaki and President Kenyatta
have suggested that pressure to excel in national examination could explain unrest
and arson in public schools.
That young people aged 13-17years would resort
to such evil and lethal violence is deeply disconcerting. Something is gravely
wrong with how we have socialized our children. As was shown by the survey
conducted by the Aga Khan University, the youth of this country are really like
the adults. Over 30 percent would take or give a bribe. About 47
percent admire those who make money through hook or crook.
As Irish philosopher Edmund Burke said, “Tell me what are the
prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young men, and I will tell
you what is to be the character of the next generation”.
To
redeem the future we must look no further than the person in the mirror in
front of us. Change starts with you, and in your household.
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