Rick Lowe

"A Concerened Educator" penned a long letter to the Editor that was printed in The Tribune on Saturday, January 15, 2011.

The unnamed "veteran educator" asked several pertinent questions that can be read at the above link to the letter.

S/He seems upset that the Ministry makes grand announcements of reform without discussing the ideas with the teachers first, and this seems a reasonable request.

And the letter writer's last comment was that "We need vision in the MOE, we need change in the MOE."

Seems to me the change has to start with the educators themselves?

They are the ones dealing with the children day to day, shouldn't they be presenting a "plan for improvement" so the MOE might incorporate them in their reform plans if the Ministry won't come to them?

So many discussions lately seem to be nothing more than political hyperbole. Isn't it time we put our ideas for improvement out for the public to consider?

Maybe changing ourselves will bring change to everything around us, then maybe the Ministry of Education, like many other government departments, agencies, and Ministries won't be failing Bahamians?

One more thing. Isn't it "us" that work in these failing institutions? We have to stop blaming some nebulous thing and accept personal repsonsibility to make it right.