regarda

Re-writing history seems to be the order of the day here. OK, three schools; the rest were built or extended by the PN.

As I said MLP didn’t like to sponsor ‘Karti ta’ l-incova’ or breed a Red Brigades cell here in Malta.

Was it Mintoff is-salvatur or it-traditur who according to your erratic knowledge INTRODUCED education in Malta? So how come eighty year olds know how to read and write? Hallina!

I have a very bad aftertaste of Dom Mintoff’s education reforms.

[Daphne – Sorry, but I don’t employ staff to deal with comments when I’m otherwise engaged.]
@ John Schembri is misinformed about the recent fixed event when our Prime Minister LG was carried shoulder high.
It is evident that, prior to the date when this hoax occurred,
the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) attempted to fix
a particular date and time when representatives of both
the Times and the Malta Independent would be present
at Castille Place, Valletta to cover the fixed event.
The Times adhered to the instructions, received from OPM,
while the Malta Independent refrained from sending
any representative. Before deducing that Studenta
has not studied history, it is advisable that John Schembri
refreshes his memory. It was a Labour Administration which introduced education to all Maltese and Gozitan children both at primary and secondary levels.The Labour Government, led by our ex Prime Minister DM between
1955 and 1958, built most state primary schools in Malta and Gozo concurrently with three secondary schools for Maltese and Gozitan students. The premises of these 3 secondary schools are still occupied by the Lyceum – Hamrun; the MCAST – Paola and the Lyceum – Victoria, Gozo.

I was a student. Like the current crop of graduands, I celebrated by going round the island on a bus drinking and making some noise. I guess you can only understand it if you had spent the previous year eating, sleeping, drinking and breathing your dissertation. I am not annoyed by their celebrations because I understand exactly why they do what they are doing. They are much less annoying than the festa fanatics anyway.

When I celebrate, I celebrate. When I give, I give. Two totally distinct activities. My point is, I do not see why anyone would EXPECT other to mix them up. You can if you want to of course.

The purpose of duttrina, oratorju or muzew is to teach children how to differentiate between good and bad in the Catholic sense of coarse.
The best definition of these classes was given by Don Bosco who wanted to make the children good Christians and responsible citizens. Don Bosco was emulated by Dun Gorg Preca and Mons Depiro .
Don Bosco’s method was the preventive system which he did by keeping the children in his oratories occupied and away from crime and sin. He encouraged his oratory children to participate in drama , to go out for walks in the country , and to participate in sport activities. You are looking at it from the opposite side.
Scouts: from what you wrote it is obvious that you don’t have any first hand experience. Cubs also cry and get bored in the scouts lessons and activities. Should they be sent marching on Saint George’s day from the Granaries down Republic street ,turning to Archbishop street and up to Castille Place rain or shine?

Regarding stipends – yes it’s nice for a student to have a stipend. But I must ask, when was the last time there was an increase in stipends? Do you really think that Lm36/month in the 1990’s is worth the same as Lm36/month in 2010? Well obviously it’s not. If fuel prices increases, the student is also prone to these fluctuations. If prices for books increase, then the students will have to suffer the increase. etc….

And students aren’t selfish (most of them). They help and they care for other persons. It is not true that the only they think about is parking spaces and condoms on campus. You should know how many times the blood drive unit is just outside university and how students go and donate blood.

One last point…if graduates do not celebrate now, when do they celebrate? When they finish work and know that pensions aren’t still there? When they finish paying a loan with all the interest at the age of 40/50? When they get unemployed?

Spartin Plug and Daphne: taking children for an outing and playing in a yard for half an hour on a Wednesday is done also by the scouts.

[Daphne – The Scouts don’t make the children pay for their fun by forcing them to listen to doctrine.]

Friends of mine take children to piano lessons, ballet, singing, modelling or a football nursery instead of duttrina/muzew, while others leave them watching TV, on a playstation or a computer.

Can you imagine that poor kid? “DO , DO Do , RE , RE , RE press the keys softer Kerstin. Did you practice at home?” , or “UP DOWN UP DOWN look at yourself in the mirror” , or “you’re getting fat you’re not fit for a model” , or “what do you think you are Ronaldo with that stupid back pass?”

[Daphne – I happen to agree with you there. But again, you’re confusing issues. It’s not a matter of either duttrina classes or piano. How about nothing? Letting them do what they like after a long day at school? I even disapprove of homework, and would write notes to the teachers about it.]

Muzew or duttrina are not obligatory; teaching religion is the parents’ responsibility. Whether children go to catechism classes, are taught at home or at school makes no difference.

It’s up to the parish priest/religious authorities to accept children for confirmation.

So according to you, if children are sent to Muzew, oratorju or duttrina by their parents, they should be made to sit down for twenty to thirty minutes listen to what the nun or ‘prifett’ wants to deliver and off to home. No socialising no friendships nothing. Shouldn’t people enjoy life?

[Daphne – You misinterpret deliberately. What I said is that children should NOT be sent to duttrina because the purpose of duttrina is to close a child’s mind to enquiry, therefore ensuring that he or she grows up to be unquestioning. It is not the religion per se that bothers me – I’m a liberal – but the process of closing the child’s mind, which is terribly detrimental to development and leads to an intellectually stunted adulthood, as we can in fact see all around us. Yes, children should be free to play, and not in the context of doctrine classes. That isn’t freedom. It is about as free as being in the schoolyard, which is not free at all. Maltese children and young people are, in the main, hideously unsocialised. They lack the most basic social skills, manners, conversational abilities, general knowledge, eloquence – and this is all because of the tight constraints in which they are raised.]

My dad had been a brilliant student, despite the hardship of growing up right after the war. Times were so hard that he wore the same school uniform for years on end, so that eventually his uniform trousers looked like shorts on him!

Unfortunately for him, Agatha Barbara was appointed minister of (ha!) education (this was in the mid 50s I believe). So what did she do? She basically declared war against graduates. I can still hear my dad having a ‘total recall’ moment as he repeated the very words Agatha Barbara said in a speech, words that he never forgot:

“Sittin tabib hargu din is-sena! Sittin tabib! X’se naghmlu bihom dawn?”

So they implemented a solution to OPENLY hinder students from entering university, namely that an O level in biology was made compulsory for *every* university course. Even if you wanted to read for a degree in law, or civil engineering, or anything you could think of.
Now my dad, at the time, had just obtained ten O levels in one year, something which at the time was unheard of. He was one of the most qualified students ever – BUT he didn’t have a biology certificate. So he was left out. He could only apply again the following year, but then in the meantime he found a job, so he moved on and kept on working. His chance for a tertiary education was flushed down the toilet just like that. Lovely eh.