Uneducation

Today, a person very close to me, a teacher, was attacked by a 12 year old delinquent student.

Education, or for the lack of a better word, uneducation, of Portuguese children is a serious issue in Portugal, which is already showing severe consequences. The indolent education policy of the current government has produced a wave of violence and disrespect for the once respected profession that was to be a teacher. In the past, I never dreamed of being rude to a teacher, and in the time of my parents or grandparents, disrespect would surely be answered with a strong beating, the kind you hardly forget later in your life.

But what makes these kids behave this way? Although some parents, not all, but some, like to blame teachers for their children’s behavior, following the good old nasty habit of blaming another person for one’s mistakes, it is important to remember that the parents are themselves the first teachers of their children. Education starts at home. And, in the same way that may be fair to question a teacher’s pedagogic ability, some parents parental capacity is also questionable. Juvenile delinquency has deeper roots that stretch beyond the walls of schools. There are situations where children are actually going hungry; teenage pregnancy (sometimes originated from violations from within the family itself); alcoholism; unstable/violent environment at home; divorced parents who use their offspring as weapons; sons and daughters of prostitutes (e.g. I was told of a case where the mother would put her son on the street to receive clients at home); neural disorders that cause unstable behavior. You name it. Things are not as simple as the cliché TV statements as “he is a delinquent teenager because he never received the G.I. Joe that Christmas morning ”. 

But how does the Portuguese government handles these problematic cases? Well, if you are able to contact the social services, in the worst case scenarios, the kids get to go to special correction schools, which are also known as authentic schools of crime. Mostly, these kids are put together and are handled by people with little training to handle these cases. 

I believe the key is: each case is a case. The Portuguese educational system currently lacks the aptitude of focusing a lot more effort into saving these kids, like by using teams of psychiatrists, psychologists and highly skilled social workers to help them. And as important as focusing on the kids, sometimes the parents also need education. Children should not be used as toys or tools to get more money from social services. Any civilized society should have the education of its children as its highest priority. And who knows, perhaps some of these children may become some of the people who mostly contribute to society.