Occasionally when I think, I’ll have a pretty decent idea for a business and immediately imagine the successes it could have if the right amount of work and effort is put into it. Then I’d have to remember the reality of where such an idea could work in the Bahamian market I envision it in because I have to remember how stubborn our people tend to be about sticking with the old traditional way of doing things.
When you venture off to college abroad, you’re exposed to so many new things and ideas and you feel so inspired and motivated to bring all these great new toys back home. But when you get there you realize that no one else knows how to play with your new toys or want to learn and thus you’re stuck playing with the old ones until they open their minds to do learn.
It makes you reconsider the desire to rush back home and show everyone your new toys and skills and I’m sure many of my fellow Bahamian college graduates face this challenge every fall and winter as they too decide what is the next step for their life.
Growing up in a “third world country” and going to school in a first world country is sometimes challenging to connect the two worlds in a way that speaks to your talents and passion. I’m sure if you Googled, you won’t find many Bahamian ballet dancers or neurophysicists. Point is, until we can grow to a place where the two worlds meet in the middle, there’ll be more and more graduates not rushing to go back home with their new toys because they have no one to play with.
Tag Archives: schools
What Not To Wear
When I was a kid in grade school, there was one day we all looked forward to: anti-uniform day. These days came far and few in between but this made each one special. The day you got to dress up in your own clothes at school for $1.
In The Bahamas, students must wear a uniform, in both private and public schools. Each school has it’s own rules concerning what was appropriate and allowed.
I went to two religious private schools for junior and senior high so the list of what you were allowed to wear was extensive, or minimal depending on how you look at it.
- When standing at attention, skirts or short pants must be past the tip of your fingers.
- Clothing cannot be too tight or fitted.
- Shirts must have sleeves (i.e. no tanks tops, halter tops, tube tops etc..) unless it’s being covered with a jacket (to be worn at all times).
- No visible stomach.
Leggings weren’t a popular item at that time so I’m not exactly sure how administration is dealing with it these days. The uniform rules were even more detailed.
Students in Kingsway Academy uniform. I went to this school from 9th-12th grade.
Despite these rules, I would dress up every single time, because it represented a slice of freedom. Freedom of individual expression typically unseen in my knee-length hunter green skirt and white, short-sleeve button-up with the school crest on the pocket.
Two of my favorite outfits came about in 9th grade. One was a baby blue terry cloth J-lo track suit. The other was an Asian-inspired fitted shirt and some jeans my grandmother bought me that I still have and wear to this day. They were, to me, age-appropriate “sexy” when everyone else thought I looked so cute.
We on the uniform-wearing side of the fence used to wish that we could wear our own clothes everyday and those that do wear their own clothes to school would probably gasp at the thought of wearing the same stuff as everyone else. But I understand it. Worrying about what to wear is annoying and time-consuming as it is now, but imagine this during a time of teenage hormones and social pressures. Look at some of the issues American schools are facing with what is deemed acceptable school attire:
These and many more issues could be avoided by simply wearing uniforms. Now of course, this does not mean it will eliminate social pressures… The brand of school bag (Kipling), shoes (Clarke’s) and brand of pants (Dickie’s) were all status markers. But think of how much less financial stress it would be if you only had to buy your kids 2 or 3 new shirts instead of an entire wardrobe each semester.
I think many of us could not wait until we got out of high school and into college so we could wear whatever the heck we wanted but for many in the work place, this still meant another uniform of some sort. In culinary school, I wore a chef’s uniform and my first “job” after college also had a uniform. In a way, all that uniform wearing just prepared us for the real world.
the D-List
Check this story out and then come back to me. Bahamas D Average
Ok, so you’ve read it? What are your thoughts on what the government can do to improve exam grades? BGCSEs stem from the British education system. As we were a British colony, we still follow many British traditions and procedures of doing things. It is a sad state for our education though. My issue comes with the fact the the government could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a gambling referendum and minimally invest in our future i.e. kids and their education.
Of course I know that it is a cyclic situation when parents can’t invest a lot of time in their kids’ schoolwork because they have to work extra hours just to support their family or they themselves didn’t receive proper education. It takes a village to raise a child and this big village that is our country is not putting as much effort as it needs to. Instead, they blame teachers, who are expected to be everything and then some for 20 + students every day. I’ve heard some colleagues that are teachers say that they have given many a students lunch money and have had to buy much of their supplies out-of-pocket. Why are the classrooms lacking the necessities???
I know for a fact that I was not a D-student, nor were any of my friends. And it wasn’t because I went to a private high school. Five of the smartest people I know all went to government (public) schools. All students don’t have that natural smart or talent but they should not be left behind because of it.
What say you?
Baha Life 