The Editor, Sir:

I am dismayed by the fact that the minister of education could jump on a very narrow-minded bandwagon to 'censor' certain literature books because one or two expletives appear in them. Clearly someone has missed the true essence of education and is taking the use of expletives in these texts entirely out of context.

In the broad scheme of education the use of expletives in these texts is never a central focus of any classroom discussion, but rather contributes towards character assessment which is an integral part of the study of literature anywhere in the world. The questions, Mr Minister, must be: Who are the characters in these texts that use the expletives? Why do they use them and in what context are they used? Can any lessons be learnt from their use of expletives? Is there another way that these characters could communicate their feelings?

In a nation where students use expletives freely whether they are from uptown or downtown, we cannot afford to take the narrow view that the minimal appearance of expletives in these text will reinforce the use of expletives as an acceptable form of communication. Rather, we should look at the wider possibility of using these texts to analyse the inadequacy of this form of communication.

I urge Minister Holness to visit the Pembroke Hall High School before it is repainted and he will get a lesson in the use of expletives on the walls and etched in the furniture. Nobody even bothers to remove these 'offensive words' to prevent the innocent students from being inducted into the hall of 'badword' usage. I wonder there is an education officer assigned to that school? I am certain that Pembroke Hall is not the only school with this problem. Therefore, rather than throw out works of great literary merit and belittle the authors' creative integrity, why not use them in a positive way. Are we not in the business of EDUCATION?

By the way Mr Minister, you should devote some time to carefully read Shakespeare's works.

This one sided, narrow-minded morality and holiness serves very little purpose while we are under-educating the masses to keep them illiterate and poor. Thousands of Jamaicans have missed the rich sociological study in the form of Orlando Patterson's The Children of Sisyphus because of a narrow-minded society unwilling to openly discuss the reality of social decadence in our society, thus using this awareness to bring about change. When I studied this text in high school my teacher told us to call the 'bad words' 'Jerusalem' and discuss the social context in which the people lived.

Let's address the real problems of illiteracy in our schools and stop wasting precious time on nonsensical notions of what is best for our students. Let's focus on real issues.

I am, etc.,

LORNA HALL-GREEN

accompong@yahoo.com