As we mature, as individuals, and as a society, we must never forget what we felt as youth and what influences had potential to move some of us towards deviance. External popular culture particularly from Jamaica and the U.S.A. wield untold power upon our youth. Cable vision is now firmly channelled and dished in our homes and it seems hopeless even thinking about it. As a result we must begin to use methods of popular education to reach those especially who are outside of the formal education system. This also means assisting them with a clarification of the culture that they are receiving from outside.
Education means to draw out.
The challenge always is to draw from the youth their own response to external stimuli then lead them to an understanding of how this stimuli can affect them. Yet we cannot draw out unless we reach out and as elders we must never cower from the responsibility of reaching out to the dispossessed and disgruntled youth on the block and in the hovels. What difference it could have made if one elder Pavee resident could have reached Kim and Ricky and inspired them to more constructive behaviour. How many of them are out there waiting for a stronger hand to reach out, waiting for someone to truly demonstrate that we are our brother's keeper. We must all pray too for the restoration of a folk culture that kept us relatively peaceful for over two centuries.