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DATA ENTRY 1: Mighty Sparrow singing his calypso - Education

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DATA ENTRY 1: Mighty Sparrow singing his calypso - Education

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Figure 1: The video below shows a Youtube video of Calypsonian Mighty Sparrow singing one of his famous calypsos on Education.

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Figure 3: The image below shows a picture of the famous Caribbean cricketer Sir Vivian Richards.

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Self-evaluation of learning for the semester.

Caribbean Civilization. The first thought that would come to mind is that this course is about history of the Caribbean. However, this was not entirely the case when the semester began. The content of this course aimed to create a new perspective on what we already know. Therefore, this course was a revisionist course where ideas of Caribbean history were re-examined.

Looking back through this course, the material was truly enjoyable as a new perspective of looking at our history was learnt. The content was indeed engaging and informative. I was able to link what was being taught to my prior knowledge and build on it or revise what was already known. With the knowledge attained from this course, teaching others about Caribbean history will be simpler and more understandable as a more open-minded approach will be taken.

At the end, one challenge that was encountered during this course was the delivery of the lectures. The physical classroom was replaced by the online lectures. This as new and made it a bit difficult to keep up with. Despite this, the recordings of these lectures were effective in replacing the physical lectures. In additiona, the tutorials were quite interesting and enjoyable as it took more of a conversational approach where students voiced their opinions and commented on others.

In summation, despite being a foundation course to complete, the entire course was impacting and informative in a way that will affect all prior knowledge of the Caribbean.

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Application of learning in the course to understanding a problem of regional importance as reflected in news and current affairs literature/programs in the region

GENDER EQUALITY

Pat Ellis in the book Women, Gender and Development in the Caribbean: Reflections and Projections explains that “There is an existing and lingering perception and belief that Caribbean women are strong powerful, capable and able to take care of themselves and their families” (2003:17). She explains that while this may be true for some women, it is also not for others. The factors of ethnicity, class, age, social and marital status (17) and level of education play major roles in determining the capabilities of a women.  From a patriarchal society to a more understanding approach to each gender and their needs, the Caribbean has left the starting point on its way to development.

Gender equality is described to be the giving of the same access to resources regardless of their gender. In some cases, there is evidence of gender equality taking place in societies of the Caribbean. Men and women being employed in areas that were traditionally known as male oriented jobs such as CEPEP and URP in Trinidad and Tobago. There are women even owning businesses and holding high positions in companies and even in parliament.

Gender equity is the provision of what is needed to succeed in a given sector based on the understanding of the needs of each gender. As compared to gender equality, equity is also evident but to a lesson extent. This is a move towards further development and is slowly becoming part of societies workplace policies.

Gender issues have been a hot topic for some time in the Caribbean and has begun to effect changes in our society. it is a hope that eventually, this will contribute to the regions development out of third world status leading us closer to first world status.

Ellis, Patricia. Women, Gender and Development in the Caribbean: Reflections and Proections. Women at Work and a Home. Ian Randle Publishers, 2003. p.17.Web.

Figure 5: The image below shows a quote made my Nelson Mandela on gender equality.

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Application of learning in Caribbean Civilization, to students’ understanding of their social environment.

WE ARE ONE EVEN THOUGH WE ARE DIFFERENT.

According to Ian Boxill et al., “Take for example, Viv Richards – there is nobody in the region who doesn’t know who Viv is” (1993: 78). This is a reflection of a large part of caribbean identity. However, this has not always been the constant state of the region. There are specific contributing factors that identifies the Caribbean such as slavery, indentureship and the entire process of colonialism. It is interesting to wonder what the region would have been like if Christopher Columbus did not venture to this part of the world. Would we have been better developed or worse off?

Our social environment of the region has become a multicultural and extraordinarily diverse one. The various groups of people who came to the region has left remnants of their way of life in the culture that we live in today. Some of the key elements that identify the Caribbean region are our common historical legacy of slavery, indentureship and now globalization, the norms and values inherited from plantation lifestyle, our love for music and arts, the high regard for cricket and our similar practices in our family life such as our closeness and hospitality.

According to Glyne Griffith, in his book Caribbean Cultural Identities, the labour of the Caribbean is the major contributor to our Caribbean identity of today (2001: 22). This is interesting as the labour force during the time of colonization were made up of a diverse type of people. These are the people who are majorly responsible for the mixture of culture evident in the Caribbean today. Most Caribbean writers today are heavily influenced by our rich colonial history and so they portray this in their literature.

Boxill, Ian. et al. Ideology and Caribbean Intergration. Attitudes towards Integration: Ideology or Ideation. Printed in Canada, 1993. p.78. Web.

Griffith, Glyne. Caribbean Cultural Indenties. Caribbean Labour, Culture and Identity: George Lamming. Rosemont Publishing and Printing Corp., 2001. p. 22. Web.

Figure 4: The image below shows an image of famouns cricketer, Shivnarine Chanderpaul as he jokingly challenges the rocord of Viv Richards.

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The Caribbean has a rich history of development that is still being shaped today. From the onset of Christopher Columbus, through the perils of slavery and indentureship through colonialization, to emancipation to independence, the Caribbean region has been moulded into what it is today. In the course Caribbean Civilization, many elements that make up the caribbean has been taught. This padlet is a representation of critical thinking and application of the knowledge gathered in this course. Furthermore, this padlet will address education as an issue of importance to the Caribbean Civilization, understadning our social enironment as represented in our culture and gender equality as a problem of regional importance as seen in current affairs and in the media.

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Critical thinking on an issue of importance to Caribbean Civilisation.

EDUCATION, ARE WE REALLY MOVING FORWARD?

According to V. Chamaria, “Education brings positive changes to human life. It enhances the knowledge, skill and intelligence of a person and enables him to lead a successful life” (2015). This statement explains that education is supposed to develop an individual in a way that it creates better opportunities in their lives which, in turn, allows them to live a comfortable life. Education is an important issue that contributes to the civilization of the Caribbean.

In Trinidad and Tobago, and other parts of the Caribbean region, the education systems are not so perfect.  The vision of becoming a developed society is becoming less and less clear when we hear about the growing amount of violence in schools. Children get into fights, teachers are attacked, bullying is on the rise which is all reflecting that the standard of discipline in schools has dropped drastically. It leads one to wonder what is the real reason for education in the first place? While the blame game is played from parents to teacher to the influence of music and media, violence is plaguing the schools.

Instead of a place for teaching discipline and skills that will lead a student to a successful life, the school has become a warzone for some. Therefore, students no longer see or is no longer taught the importance education. This in itself is problematic. While it is the responsibility of the parent to push their child towards education, sometimes the parents themselves need the education to do such. A generational habit then develops and the society becomes affected by this as some students eventually drop out of school, poverty become even more prominent and criminal activity increases which hinders development of the country.

IsDePainInMe. “Mighty Sparrow - Education” Online video clip.  Youtube. Youtube, 11 Apr 2010. Web. 13 April 2017.

Chamarie, Vikash. Short Essay on Education and its Advantages. 24 July 2015. Web.  Accessed 13 April 2017.  http://www.importantindia.com/19774/short-essay-on-education-and-its-advantages/

Figure 2: Image below showing the headlines from one of Trinidad's newspapers, Newsday, where the headlines express the level at which school violence has reached.