Sunday, May 25, 2025 at 1:21 PM

The word civics comes from the Latin word “civicus”, meaning, “relating to a citizen”. Dictionary definitions also make reference to the fact that civic education helps people understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens, in the end empowering citizens to make a difference in the world.

Then there is the term avoirdupois, which is “a system of weights based on a pound of 16 ounces or 7000 grains, widely used in English-speaking countries”.

Now that I have taken care of all that, I want to take you on a ride in my time machine. A ride to a time when Belize was still British Honduras, the only English-speaking colony in Central America. A time before Castro and Kennedy and self-government. A time when in primary/grade school we used to have exercise books (that is what they were called), with the avoirdupois weights and measures on the back of the outer cover. Those were the workbooks that we did our homework in, took notes in, and our teachers would inspect them daily. There was so much information on that back cover.

We are still in that time machine, where before the teachings began, we would sing “God Save the Queen”, then we would put out our hands to be inspected, and if you had dirty fingernails you would get hit on the offending hand by a ruler or a sash cord. A sash cord was a rope, usually doubled up, used to dole out corporal punishment to unruly children. A time when you had to be neat and clean, and if you wore a school uniform, which almost all schools required, they had to be starched and pressed; sometimes they were uncomfortable to wear. The private or religious schools were the most demanding ones; if you weren’t wearing your school uniform, you could be sent home. Wat a ting!

To me, primary school was the hardest of the school levels. It was when it would be decided that you were either smart, average, or just plain duncey. It was when your young mind started to open up and see beyond your family and neighbors and friends, and when you began to realize that knowledge was important, that our curious young minds had a lot to absorb; and boy, did we.

I don’t know if civics is still being taught in schools today, but I do know that during that time long ago, we were aware of who our representatives in government were, their names and their departments. We had to know who the British governor was, and the colonial secretary. I still remember the name TD Vickers. But we were taught about the branches of government, from the Legislative Council to town boards to village councils. We were also taught, and had to memorize the names of world leaders, countries and their capitals, about the planets, 9 at that time, the oceans and continents, and the longest rivers, the highest mountains, and about the extent of the British Empire. Many of those countries and capitals have undergone name changes since then, including the Jewel.

Of course, you had civics lessons interspersed with geography and history, but at that young age they all seemed intertwined to me. And I loved those subjects; the avoirdupois part was like kryptonite to me, never liked math. I especially loved the quizzes on Fridays, when you would compete to see who was the smartest in class. I wasn’t the smartest, but when it came to countries and capitals and world leaders, no one could touch me.

We were at a disadvantage, though, because we weren’t really taught our history; the Battle of St. George’s Caye, and the woodcutters and “them” pirates were taught, but not where we came from; that wasn’t even taught in secondary schools at the time. But we did learn a lot in primary schools. Poetry and music and arts and crafts and woodwork. It was the beginning of a lifelong journey into knowledge and discovery.

Oh, I forgot. At recess, they would give us Klim, a sweetened powdered milk mixed with water, and a powder bun. A powder bun is the equivalent of a scone, for those who are wondering. Thank goodness we lived in the tropics, because in the afternoons, sometimes earlier, we lactose intolerants would start passing gas from that blasted Klim, and if not for those open windows, we would’ve needed gas masks to survive the barrage of noxious gases heaped upon us by each other. Wat a ting, again.

But in all seriousness, it was a time to learn, without all those gadgets that are so easily available today. We had our books and the libraries and the encyclopedias, to research whatever subjects we were being taught and tested on. Our retention rate was much higher than it is nowadays; it had to be. We were more disciplined and orderly and respectful of authority and our elders and the police. We were afraid of the dark and ghosts and all the superstitions that prevailed back them.

But we knew our civics. If children today were taught civics the way we were back then, people like Trump and Bukele would not stand a chance to be elected by a majority. I said elected, because there were dictators in our neighborhood back then, but they were not elected. Civics gives one an understanding of their culture, their politics, and their rights. It helps one to try and create a better community, a better society, a better country, a much better world.

If my civics was being taught today, our politics in Belize would be different. We would have a viable opposition party, as opposed to the clown show that now serves no purpose. Maybe we would care more about each other, respect lives more, the police would be more community-oriented, we would still own a lot more of our God-given lands. Maybe we wouldn’t have become just another Latin American state, rife with corruption and violence and disunity.

“Turn wheresoever I may, by night or day, the things which I have seen I now can see no more”. —  William Wordsworth.

Glen