However, it would seem that what is needed is parent education if our children are to really gain from their school lives. Some parents do not have much of a formal education themselves, but want their children to be better prepared for modern life than they were. Others think education isn?t necessary, or is secondary to earning a living, not realizing that the living they earn without an education will never be much. What I am really talking about, though, is how parents raise their children, how they talk to them and discipline them. Many of these parents are hardly more than children themselves, but others are older and supposedly more mature, even though their manner of speaking to their children is not helpful.

One day last week as parents and children were coming from one event at the school, a young mother was severely berating her child. This child was less than a year old, still in the stroller and probably not even talking or walking, yet the mother was cussing her out for something, mashing her hat on the little head and pulling her dress down roughly. The tone of voice alone was enough to instill fear in such a small child. If this is the normal tone of voice, a violent tone of voice, it will leave just as deep an impression on the child as a beating. There is a great need for parenting classes so that young parents (both male and female) learn more effective ways of communicating with their children. Children are educated for many things but not about how to act as good parents.

On Saturday the Women?s Department held their annual fair in the park in San Ignacio. It was late but the music was still playing and people standing around chatting. I stopped to talk to my friend and as I walked away this young guy saunters into the park, from the direction of the market area, holding an open bottle of beer. He climbs up on the gazebo and calmly drinks his beer like it was the place to do it. How ironic. Alcohol and drunkenness are some of the major causes of violence against women!

First of all, the guy was breaking the law and the restaurant was breaking the law! I have reported seeing several people, over time, coming from that direction with open beer bottles, but nothing seems to have been done to change the situation. Secondly, it negates a lot of what went on that morning, since alcohol directly contributes to so much abuse of women. It is not necessary that a man be drunk before he abuses his woman, but it exacerbates the situation; they lose whatever inhibitions they might have and the brutality is increased. Checking up on establishments that break the Liquor Licensing Act may seem irrelevant but it is one small, but significant, way of sending a message to the public.

Children?s Week/Children?s Day, Women?s Week/Women?s Day are all about instilling respect for a vulnerable segment of the population. It is an educational process that has to continue the year round if we are ever to see any reduction in the murders, rapes, assaults, beatings and all kinds of mental, physical and psychological abuses perpetrated against women and children. Success lies in dealing with all the small details. We can all help by reporting infractions of the law, abuse of children and women neighbours. Don?t wait until it happens to you!

(Signed)

Pat Asling

Benque