Young people should not be written off as a “lost generation”, MP Dwight Sutherland warned on Friday, calling on parents and the wider community to champion encouragement and involvement as children transition to secondary school.
At the 2025 graduation ceremony for Blackman and Gollop Primary School, held on Thursday at the Ivan Yearwood Centre at Christ Church Parish Church, the St George South MP rejected the narrative that young people are irredeemable or without promise.
He said: “There’s a saying around this country and in the Caribbean we have lost a generation because we have a small section of our society giving trouble. But if we continue to promulgate and spew from our mouths that we have lost a generation, what are you saying to these 68 lovely kids and over 200 and something or more have graduated between St George and Christ Church? What are we saying to these children?
“Stop putting negative words into these children’s minds about we’ve lost a generation and that the world is not the same world that we saw back then. Because, you know what, what has changed in the world? Technology. We are now able to see what is going on by the minute. People like me did some crazy things as well [in the past], but we have social media now to highlight what is being done. Please stop saying that we have lost a generation. Saying that we’ve lost a generation is telling me that your children are not future leaders, and they wouldn’t be innovators, and they wouldn’t dream big and become the best at what they aspire to achieve in life.”
The MP also issued a call to action for parents to remain heavily involved with their children as they move on to secondary school.
“Don’t take your foot off the accelerator,” he said. “We become a challenged society when we as parents think because our children have passed this level we can relax at home and allow them to go to secondary school without us being involved, without us checking their bags [or] being a part of the PTA.
“Now is the time you have to put your foot on the accelerator. Now is the most challenging time in their lives.”
(SB)
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