The Tribune

By SIMON

“Beauty will save the world.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

When Aquinas College moved from Palmdale to Gladstone Road some years ago, something remarkable unfolded. The school experienced significant improvements in educational outcomes in myriad areas.

This included academic achievement, character development, and spiritual growth. Of significance is that male students are doing as well as female students in many subject areas, often on par. There are various ingredients in the school’s recipe for success.

This includes the stellar leadership of principal Shona Moss Knowles, a veteran and innovative educator, alongside her dedicated staff. Still, the main ingredient that boosted male achievement appears to be the quality of the natural and built environment of the school, shaping the mood and horizon of students.

In erecting the modern campus, Archbishop Patrick Pinder envisioned a welcoming and safe environment, a place of beauty!

He spared little effort in ensuring quality classrooms, modern technical-vocational facilities, a well-appointed library and learning center, quality performing and visual arts spaces, and a well laid out campus.

The campus enjoys a labyrinth, a gardening area, and a peace pond as part of its broader environmental and spiritual development programmes.

A former Aquinas school teacher after he was ordained a priest, 45 years ago, Archbishop Pinder, along with others, had a compelling vision for the quality of the campus. That vision has affected student desires and outcomes.

The boys want to come to school. They want to learn. They are realizing certain expectations because they believe others are investing in their holistic and experiential education.

As noted last week, a teacher told this columnist years ago of a male student who switched schools in a sister Caribbean country. The campus he moved to was more peaceful. It had more trees and foliage. Our environment makes a difference in the quality of our living and learning.

The young man remarked of his new school, “I feel I can breathe!” His mood improved, his grades improved, and his life outcomes improved significantly. We need to create learning, diversionary, and intervention spaces where young people feel they can breathe and not feel overwhelmed.

Many young people, including those at-risk and those who feel abandoned, have few spaces to breathe in cramped urban spaces, poor home environments, and a number of government-operated schools not fitted and prepared for their needs.

There are government-operated schools which do a good job educating students. There are many dedicated administrators and teachers who have devoted their lives to public education and the nurturing of talent. Numerous public school graduates are among our leading citizens.

Still, more is needed today, especially in targeted diversionary and intervention programmes amidst the deep-seated and widespread social dysfunction threatening the lives and long-term prospects of scores of young people, especially boys and young men.

We do have intervention programmes. But they are too small! Just as we need ongoing modern and smart upgrades to physical infrastructure, we need a social intervention ecosystem and infrastructure with a diversity of strategies, models programmes, and facilities.

Government has a critical role in diversionary programmes, especially in the areas of funding and oversight. However, just as the country required a Nassau Airport Development Company to run LPIA, we need similar public-private partnerships to run social intervention initiatives.

Both Simpson Penn Centre for Boys and Willi Mae Pratt Centre for Girls should be thanked for their many fine efforts over the years. Still, many recognise that the centres should be expanded and modernised with greater emphasis on experiential learning and diversionary efforts similar to more successful programmes internationally.

Government has often done a fair to poor job in intervention. This is not just a Bahamian phenomenon. It is the role of the entire society to foster family life and community development.

Government alone cannot prevent and combat crime and violence. Correspondingly, government cannot be the sole and in various instances, the major agent of diversion and intervention.

A recent news story highlighted the concern and frustration of National Security Minister Wayne Munroe and Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin, over the need for housing for at-risk and other youth who require alternative living arrangements other than their difficult family circumstances and home environments. 

The ministers clearly want alternative housing as soon as possible. But beyond the development of a physical facility there should be a broader vision for such housing. They must ensure a welcoming and beautiful space not just a building.

If the government simply sets up the traditionally run government facility, it will fail in many ways. It will fail because of a lack of ambition and programmatic imagination. It will be stifled by certain bureaucratic mindsets and poor management.

There will be considerable political interference and cronyism. It will be hobbled by staffing problems and funding shortfalls. There will be all manner of theft and related problems.

It will become rundown and likely poorly maintained. It will risk becoming a warehouse instead of a new home for children and youth in need of beautiful spaces and programmes to help restore often bruised lives.

Alternatively, the government could enter a management agreement with former educators and others who will manage the facility, with the ability to easily hire and fire staff. The government must have clear oversight because it will be publicly funded. There must be vigorous health, safety and security protocols.

Nevertheless, imagine such a facility being run by a not-for-profit consortium of retired educators, who are well paid and not political cronies. This is the kind of new vision we need to run more of our diversionary and social intervention programmes.

The Davis Administration recently launched the Creative and Performing Arts School (CAPAS). This is an exceptional idea that has been touted for years. It will succeed if it has sustained public financing and private support.

It should be modelled in part on the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), which has maintained quality programmes and been an incubator for the visual arts. NAGB has succeeded in great part because of its leadership.

At its inception, it was led by founding director and chief curator Dr Erica James, who ensured that the institution was not dumbed down through mediocrity and crass political interference.

Others, like Amanda Coulson and John Cox, and various board and staff, continued this legacy in their respective roles at the Museum.

CAPAS must ensure a similar quality of leadership and public support. It should receive funding to restore or build a beautiful facility.

Likewise, a facility cum programme for housing for students in the government-operated school system can improve the lives of more of our young people. However, it will only succeed if it takes inspiration from Bahamas and international success stories in how to intervene in meaningful and beautiful ways.

Let us borrow compelling inspiration from Fyodor Dostoevsky, who imagined, “Beauty will save the world”. The Russian novelist was referring to moral and aesthetic beauty.

Let us make more things beautiful in The Bahamas to save and to enrich the lives of more of our beautiful children and youth, and our own lives!