Guardian Radio A.M. with CA Newry - August 13 2025

[00:00:01] Speaker A: This is Guardian Radio, your station for up to the minute news and intelligent. [00:00:07] Speaker B: Interactive and engaging conversations. [00:00:10] Speaker A: 96.9 FM. [00:00:13] Speaker B: The views and opinions of the hosts. [00:00:15] Speaker A: And guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management and staff of Guardian Radio. Guardian Radio Today is brought to you by Alive Burger King, the Cleveland Clinic, Commonwealth Bank, Epic Battery, Janae's Uniform Center, Popeyes Printmasters and Bronze Electric Motors. [00:00:58] Speaker C: And. [00:00:58] Speaker B: Welcome, welcome, welcome to another edition, the Wednesday, August 13th edition of Guardian Radio Today. My name is Dr. Cleveland W Eneas III, also known as Kahunan Kusara. It is my pleasure to be with you on this. What they say what hump day here in beautiful Nassau, Bahamas. We appreciate everybody out there listening. Today we want to talk some education. Yeah. I want to ask a critical question to those who are able to listen and those who may be able to even respond via text or to call. The question I want to propose today is are we preparing our children for a future that no longer exists? Are we preparing our children for a future that no longer exists? I have a godchild of mine who's heading off to university and I wish her the best. And of course, our children, my wife and I, our children are headed back to school in another couple of weeks as well. And so I think, you know, this is an important conversation. You know, people are back to school shopping as we speak. And of course, in another couple days, I think the grades for the national exams will be printed, if they haven't already. I think I haven't seen anything, but I know they'll come out soon. And of course there's conversations up every year around this time regarding school and the average of the students, etc. Etc. But I want to have a deeper conversation, right? I want to have a conversation that I pray plants a seed in, in, in, in the minds and in the hearts of not not only the, the people listening, but in the hearts and the minds of the policymakers, right? Education is, is very important to Bahamians. I think we are some of the most educated people on the planet. All right, that's. Excuse me, that's a rite of passage for Bahamians, right? You know, you're going to school and if, and if you have the opportunity after you finished high school, you know, you may do some time at UB or BTVI or one time it was success or wherever. And then of course, some people have the privilege to do, to travel, to go off to university, and unfortunately, many aren't coming back. Many are not choosing to come Back. They don't have a real reason to come back as far as we can see. That's a whole nother aspect of this conversation. But the late, great Dr. Cleveland W. Eneas Jr. 1 Fritzi Fritz Roy, he and my late great uncle, Dr. Judson Enius, they went off to school at a very young age. My father was 10 years old when he went off to Jamaica College, to JC boarding school, as it were. He would always tell me the story of how, you know, he would have come to this country as a young, young, young man who was raised initially in the United States, born in Nashville, Tennessee. So he had a little American accent. And they would let him go on the radio and, and read or speak, but he didn't, you know, he spoke well, but. But the education at the time just, just wasn't sitting well with my grandparents. And so, long story short, they ended up sending him to Jamaica College right on Hope Road. I had the opportunity to stand outside of jc. The campus wasn't open when I was there. But in any event, he went on like my uncle and even my aunt. They all became doctors in their own right, physicians. My father was a dentist, and that bode well. And we had a generation that followed this template of, you know, becoming doctors, lawyers, accountants, which all I think still needed. All right. However, the realities of tomorrow are not necessarily being addressed by the education system today. I think, I think we're behind the curb curve in some respects. So I pull up some information to share. Right. Eventually I want to talk about what careers are seemingly are the careers that will garner the most money. At the end of the day, you're spending all this money on education. You want your money back. You want to be able to take care of your family. You won't be able to, to function as an adult. But the education system often faces criticism for not adequately preparing students for the future due to its focus on rote memorization. Now, road memorization, we can't throw it away. You know, sometimes that's just the way you, you, you have to memorize something, go over it over and over and over again. And then you have these standardized tests. So these tests now determine the average of the students in the country. And the cry is, or is it the average? When in truth, this conversation, I'm not going to get so much into the average today. But the scale, I think it goes from A to like G. It's not an average scale. Right. So we expect an average results from a scale that's not average. Right. But the standardized testing you know, I'll go on record and say it's a curse. It's a curse, okay? Because there are many skills and there are many things that we can be focusing on. But is it on the bjc? Is it on the bgcse? Is it on the standardized test? And if it's not a part of the curriculum, then we act as if it's not important when that's just not the case. All right? So this rote memorization, the standardized testing, all right, is what we focus on rather than fostering critical thinking, My Lord. Critical thinking. How do we need it? We really need critical thinking, right? Critical thinking, creativity and adaptability. I don't think we understand how important a skill adaptability is your ability to adapt. We talk about the rate of suicides going up in the country, amongst the other ill, social ills in the country. The reality is many of us don't know how to adapt, right? We've been given a template of what life is supposed to look like. And if it doesn't look the way we expected it to look, we panic. I'm not saying it's supposed to be easy. I'm not saying that if you're afraid or, you know, if you, if you feel like, oh, my goodness, what am I going to do that that happens to the best of us. I've been there many times. But I am very grateful that not so much school, but just life has taught me to adapt. I've had life experiences that have taught me to adapt and has taught me personally that, you know, life, it comes in cycles. And yeah, today may not be the way you wanted it to be, but tomorrow, you know, it potentially could be better. It potentially could be better. And nature, you have, or in mathematics you have what's called a parabola. You have this up and down movement. All right? Within nature, things have to change. All right? So many argue that the curriculum is outdated and disconnected from the rapidly evolving demands of the modern world, particularly in the face of technological advancements and changing job markets. So we know we got AI right? I, I, I, I, I, I want to have a show just on AI I'm going to bring in special guests for that or special guests for that. But AI is here, all right? And AI isn't necessarily AI. AI ain't on the bjc. AI ain't on the bgcse, not in any major way, right? But AI is necessary. If you don't understand how to utilize AI or even recognize that AI is right now in the schools, you know, teachers have to determine whether or not a student actually did the work. Did they just go on Chat GPT or some other type of AI in order to, to do their work? Right. Or did they actually do it? So the whole, and I'm not against Chat GPT. I was an administrator, all right, for many years. And these, these conversations, you know, we had and we like. No, we. I support the use of AI. I support the use of Chat GPT. I think it's better that we teach them how to utilize it as opposed to just allowing it to be something that they ultimately are going to use anyway. To, to, to cheat? No, teach them how to use it. And let me explain what I mean by that. ChatGPT is essentially what a calculator is in mathematics for English. I call it the English calculator, if that makes sense. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Right. [00:11:22] Speaker B: You could do everything by hand. You could just, you could do all the long division. You could do everything by hand. You don't need a calculator. But somewhere along the line, we figured out that if we're going to get through the curriculum, if the children are going to get through the actual exam or the test, we better give them some calculators. We bet them. And then on top of that, you have scientific calculators, you have calculators that, that, that finance calculators etc, and we've been okay with calculators. Well, well, English is caught up. English has a calculator now too, right? It can, it can process an assay in, in literally seconds. Right. Doesn't mean children should, should, should just give up on, on writing essays. No, no, no, no more than a child should, should, should give up on learning their times tables because they have a calculator. All right, but the reality of the situation is these, these changes. And I know I'm not. This show is not about getting down on the Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education. This conversation I'm having right now could easily be a conversation that's being had within the Ministry right now, matter of fact, I know it is. Right. But the wheels of change don't necessarily move as quickly as change is taking place. It's happening very rapidly. All right, so here are some of the issues. All right, we're going to talk about the job market in a second, right? And we're going to get to some text and some phone calls in just a second. I'm going to open the phone lines in just a bit. I just want to set a table for a second. Right? I just want to set the table and I want People to chime in, right? So here's the reality, all right? The modern world's upon us. We're putting children in a situation where they themselves that these changes are upon us. So they're bored, all right? You put a device in their hand to do regular schoolwork, and if you ain't monitoring them, my Lord help you. They on day on the device talking to someone from Finland or Hungary or Japan on a game, right? When I was in third grade, I had a pen pal, right? I would write my pen pal and then I would send a letter off and in a couple of weeks I would get a letter back from my pen pal. And you know, I was. That was our version of, you know, what's up, right? But today, you know, my children, they have cousins in the US and family around the world and they'll be playing the game and be like, who are you talking to? Are you talking to cousin so and so? Or are you talking to some person I just met from another country? And you're like, okay, this is different, this is different. So the education system now has to ultimately catch up to this, right? It's not going to happen overnight. All right, so here are some of the issues, right? So we talk about the emphasis on standardized testing and rote memorization. I'll say for me, I was never a good standardized test taker. I just wasn't. I probably still am not. You know, the sat, the act. I was one of the first classes. I think maybe I would have been in the second class to, to start taking the bgcse. They were making the shift from GCE to bgcse. I think maybe the year before I was to graduate, but I went off to boarding school. And so I didn't even take the bgcse. I went off to boarding school and I took the sat. And even now, you know, later on I became a teacher and I had to help students get through that exam. And I learned because of AI, because of technology, how to take that exam. You understand, like if you didn't have the money to go and pay somebody to teach you how to take that exam, there's a way to take the SAT, there's a way to take the ACT. I even took my MCATs when I was, you know, going off to the medical school. It's like an eight hour exam, but it's a standardized test, right? And standardized testing is important to a certain degree, but it doesn't give you the full scope, it doesn't give you the full picture of where the student is all right. I could be a, a student who does very well in classwork. I may have test and anxiety and I don't do well on tests. Right. That's a skill. Test taking is a skill. All right. But here's some of the other issues. Are we preparing our children for a future that no longer exists? Right. Curriculum disconnection from the future. Curriculum disconnection from the future. This is. This is. And then let me give you a couple things we're going to talk about after this break. Right? The curriculum disconnection from the future, the lack of focus on practical skills, limited exposure to diverse perspectives and neglecting the importance of lifelong learning. All right, then we're going to go into what the and what are we preparing for and why here on Guardian Radio today with your host, Dr. Cleveland W. Eneas III. We'll open up the phone lines in just a bit. I see some text coming through already. Thank you all for listening back right after this. [00:17:18] Speaker A: Tired of banks forcing you to use. [00:17:20] Speaker B: Technology to bank the way they want you to? [00:17:22] Speaker A: Your convenience is important. So no matter what your banking needs. [00:17:26] Speaker B: Commonwealth Bank's friendly staff are always available in branch for that personal one on one service. But when you choose technology, our online. [00:17:34] Speaker A: And mobile banking app offers you state. [00:17:37] Speaker B: Of the art functionality. [00:17:39] Speaker A: The choice is yours. Commonwealth bank bank the way you want. It's time to upgrade the way you enjoy at home. Entertainment. Alive Fiber is here. Enjoy all your favorite channels and streaming apps all at lightning fast Internet speeds with affordable bundles and it's only a click away. Visit www.AliveFiber.com to sign sign up now. Stay connected. Live your life. It's good to be alive. [00:18:17] Speaker C: Always on the go. [00:18:18] Speaker B: Miss the show. [00:18:19] Speaker A: You can now listen to shows anytime, anywhere on Spotify and YouTube by searching. [00:18:24] Speaker B: Guardian Radio 96.9 FM or by entering. [00:18:28] Speaker C: The name of your favorite show. [00:18:29] Speaker A: You can also listen by logging on to guardian talk radio.com and clicking on the podcast tab. Guardian Radio continuing to provide you with fresh news and smart talk anywhere, anytime, all day. This is Guardian Radio 96.9 FM. Fresh news, smart talk all day. [00:19:01] Speaker B: And welcome back to Guardian Radio Today with your host, Dr. Cleveland W. Eneas III, also known as Kahunan Kusara. We're talking a little bit about education today and how we're preparing our children for a future that may no longer exist. All right. In this rapidly changing world, we have children now going back to school in a few short weeks and parents are finding money to buy school uniforms and buy books and bags and Computers and tablets and all of this for what? All of this for what? You know, are we going to get an roi, A return on this investment in any meaningful way? Because if we're not paying attention to the future, we could really be setting ourselves college debt. You know, all these loans we have to take out just to educate our children and it's something we need to pause and discuss. Right. So this disconnection from the future, the curriculum, it often lies behind the rapid pace of technological and societal changes, leaving students ill equipped to navigate the complexities of the modern world. So when we start talking about social issues and how children are responding in, in our, in our everyday life, right, when you start talking suicide, when you start talking mass shootings, when you start talking about police chases, etc. Etc. All of this now has to come into question with regard to what we're preparing the children to actually do when they leave school. If you, if the child leaves school and, and we tell the child there's nothing for you to do, or we're telling the child we only could pay you minimum wage, then we setting ourselves up for failure. Right. The educational publication Publications note that the skills needed. And this is a, this is, I'm reading, not just from a regional perspective, but a global perspective. All right, call. I see you are coming to you in just a second. Right. Educational publications noted the skilled workplace such as creativity. Creativity is a skill. Creativity is a skill. Needed skill. Collaboration is a skill. A needed skill. Adaptability, we talked about it earlier, is a skill. And they are not always emphasized in traditional educational settings. Let's run to the phone lines. 3236-2323-2543-1632-54259. In the family of islands. 2423-00-5720. Of course our tax line is powered by BTC 422-4796. Standard tax rates do apply. Caller, you are on Guardian Radio today. What say you? [00:21:55] Speaker C: Yes, good afternoon and thanks for this opportunity. Yes, I taught for about 28 years. [00:22:00] Speaker B: Okay, beautiful. [00:22:01] Speaker C: And sometimes, you know, I got tired of teaching the same thing over and over and over. You know what it is to teach the same thing over and over 28 years. [00:22:10] Speaker B: That's a long time. [00:22:11] Speaker C: Okay, good. So, so what I did sometimes when I, even when I felt tired or I just listened to the. I would have, like what you have today. Open discussion or what you always have open line. When you have the open line, you get a better feel of what you're dealing with from the children. [00:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:29] Speaker C: And I used to tell them once they be respectful to each other, we could talk about anything. [00:22:33] Speaker B: Yes. [00:22:34] Speaker C: Because they need to know a lot about everything. Mm. And I would get. I mean, everybody come awake. And you know what? I also did, too. When I gave assignments, I would pick the slowest boy. Cause I always tell them, that is why we come to school. We come to learn. [00:22:52] Speaker B: That's right. [00:22:53] Speaker C: I would bet the slowest boy $20 about the homework assignment. And do you know when they leave for lunch or go for break, they all carry him with them. Cause they want some of that. And he come back with the homework assignment. I know they all. Somebody might have did it. Right. But he has to now read it back to me and explain it to me. And they make sure he know that just to get that $20. [00:23:16] Speaker B: That's the collaboration right now. So that's so important. [00:23:19] Speaker C: I mean, teachers are not going to do it like how I did. And I. I would bet them on their assignment. And that motivated that. You'd be surprised to see how motivated children get when you involve money. [00:23:31] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. [00:23:32] Speaker C: Just like anybody else, they get tired of the same thing and they wake right up when you bet them, or I would bet, I ask a question and say, I bet you $3 you can't answer the question. And my friend, everybody whispering to the next one, and they wake up, ask me, ask me, ask me. So I'm saying all of that to say they always talk about these new techniques that come up and none of them wake. The children still fall asleep. The teachers fall asleep. But when you do something like that and motivate these children, they all start to learn. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:06] Speaker C: Most especially the foreign teachers, they're not going to put up any money. But you got the Bahamian money. Because our country, and we want the children to learn, we need to switch from teaching all this English history, all this going to the moon and all this going to the. [00:24:23] Speaker B: The pit of the earth, but that's in the works. I know the history book is on stream. [00:24:27] Speaker C: We need to start teaching about when you get your first paycheck, go put it in the bank or try get insurance to pay you dividend or try and get. Start working on a fix. [00:24:40] Speaker B: Yes. [00:24:40] Speaker C: And when you save your money, buy a little piece of property, it don't have to be an acre. I always tell them it doesn't have to be an acre. It could be a hut, but once it's yours, the rent man can come knocking on it. These are the kind of things we need to teach our church instead of this physics. Listen, I can't think of anything I learned in school that I use today besides my multiplications, my ABCs and probably a little bit of geography. So all these things they teach us, they. We don't need that. Besides multiplication. English probably Hurricane geography. And then the rest is common sense. Look out for bad company boys who using drugs. [00:25:21] Speaker B: Yes. [00:25:22] Speaker C: Save your money so you don't have to pay rent all your life. Think about your old age. This would be need to start teaching our children. But see the. I don't want to stay in prejudice, but the white children, they have their children life planned. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:37] Speaker C: Because they have all money. We don't. We trying to build a future. Each generation have to start over. [00:25:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:47] Speaker C: So we have no trust. And all these. And explain these things to the children how the next set of people live. So you're going to open up some of their minds because they wonder why some of them. They out playing golf. Big day. Or the biggest thing in their day right now, what they're having for lunch. They wonder why these things happen. [00:26:05] Speaker B: Right. [00:26:06] Speaker C: And they think it's through drugs and all that. No. Somebody in the family invested. [00:26:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:11] Speaker C: And set it up so their generation could live on. That's the kind of things we need to instill in our children. [00:26:18] Speaker B: Man. [00:26:19] Speaker C: And think about the children. Stop talking about the Queen Elizabeth, the Walter Raleigh and all that. Stop that. Because ain't nobody asking about them yet. And Columbus. And no matter if I want you can spend one class on Columbus because that'll bring you up and then let that bring you up to date. [00:26:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:36] Speaker C: Stop talking about him altogether. [00:26:37] Speaker B: Yes. [00:26:38] Speaker C: Talk about our people in this country who did with somebody. Even some of the bad boys and some of the good people. And don't talk about those people who are paid to do what they did. People who went out of their way and did things. Because they always honoring these people who were paid to do what they did. That's about their legends. They're not legends. Legends are people who take their own and go into something and take a risk. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Wow. [00:27:02] Speaker C: But if you paying somebody and they got all this money, at the end of the day they were paid. So they just had a little bit of motivation to do something. [00:27:10] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:11] Speaker C: But they wouldn't have done it with their money. [00:27:12] Speaker B: Right. [00:27:13] Speaker C: So let's stop honoring them. [00:27:15] Speaker B: Wow. [00:27:16] Speaker C: I tired of these people ordering these people who were paid to do what they did. Anyway, my friend. Thanks. [00:27:22] Speaker B: I really appreciate the contribution. Three, two, three, six two, three, two, three, two, five, four, three, one. Six, three, two, five, Four, two five, nine. Family of islands. 242-300-5720. I'm going to get to the next call in just a second. I just want to read something here regarding jobs that earn the most money in the Bahamas. Right? In the Bahamas. And this has been pulled from several sources. Right? In the Bahamas, some of the highest paying jobs are the fee in the fields of medicine, law, finance and technology. Right. Doctors, surgeons, lawyers and judges can earn substantial incomes. Additionally, roles in finance, such as bank managers and technology, like IT managers and specialists are also among the top earners. Effective positions in various sectors also command high salaries. All right, so obviously we know about health care, we know about law, right? We got a zillion lawyers, right? Ironically, we don't, we don't seem to give the scholarships for health care. You know, we, we seem to have an issue staffing these hospitals, but we're not giving the scholarships for our children to go off to pursue medicine in the way I think it may have been in the past. Right. I've sat in some meetings where those conversations came up. Right. Finance, we know, is important, right? But this technology aspect, right, The IT managers, the specialists and the engineers, particularly in cybersecurity, right? Cybersecurity, data analysis, software development. These are in high demand and well compensated. All right, Machine learning engineers. I didn't even know what these things are. Machine learning in the Bahamas can earn around 88,000 plus dollars annually. All right, this is a site called New Camp, right? There are others and we'll get to them in just a second. Let me just run to this next caller on the phone line here on Guardian Radio. Today calling your life. [00:29:30] Speaker C: Hello, how are you? I'm great. [00:29:33] Speaker B: Great, man. Thanks for calling. [00:29:36] Speaker C: You're welcome. I like this topic. My reason for calling is. Well, first of all, I was told I'm getting to be a chronic caller. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Oh my. At least you ain't no chronic call around here. You could call this show, you know what I'm saying? [00:29:53] Speaker C: All right, so like I said, I love the topic right now. When I was back in school, we had typing and all of that, but we had the manual typewriter where you had to, you know, use your fingers. Yeah, tic tac, tic tac. And all of that. Yeah, and all of that. Yeah, right. Then we did shorthand also, which I passed and everything like that. But because if the kids today, they should be smarter than the phone they're on because everything is at their disposal. I mean, you can just go on. [00:30:31] Speaker B: There and they ain't no good Day of it. They ain't no good. Day of it. [00:30:35] Speaker C: I don't know that some of the kids are dumber. So I don't know. [00:30:39] Speaker B: Listen, you know, we had to go to the library. Right? We had to go or pull the encyclopedia off the shelf. [00:30:46] Speaker C: Facts. [00:30:46] Speaker B: Right. They don't have to do that, but they stay. They. Yeah, yeah. [00:30:53] Speaker C: And when I was back in school also, I still feel as if they did not teach us a whole lot of stuff that we needed to know. I learned a whole lot of stuff when I came out of school, and I was surprised to know that, hey, they had dumbed us down. And I still feel as if they're dumbing us down. I feel as if the race, the black race, rather, is being dumbed down. They have us ignorance. It's a whole lot of stuff. [00:31:19] Speaker B: Yeah. We don't learn by ourselves. [00:31:22] Speaker C: I'll just leave that for another day. [00:31:24] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I appreciate you. I appreciate you. Okay. Thank you so much for calling. [00:31:28] Speaker C: You're welcome. Okay. [00:31:30] Speaker B: I think the point the caller is making is very relevant, and we're going to get into some of that in the second half hour. In the second hour, rather, you know, who does education actually serve? Right. It's not serving the wider community in many. In many ways. Right. But. But that is something that. That we definitely have to bring into the conversation. Let me just read a text and then we'll go to the phone lines again, says, good day. Does the caller. And this is talking about the caller before this last one. Does the. Good day. Does the caller realize Bahamians who actually paid. Sorry, waiting for that to move out of the way. Does the caller realize Bahamians who actually paid for their. For their homes and property lost it to the government because the government implemented internal revenue on them? So even if you own your property, you still don't own your property. My Lord. Also, getting a job is the only way to get a house loan. But jobs never pay enough for you to get the money. All right, the whole system is rigged. It definitely is. I can't. I can't disagree on that one. Right. Please note that this is another tax. Please note that most business owners earn more money than all of the above listed. And Dexter, you're making a very good point. That's where I was going eventually. Entrepreneurship. All right. We need to teach our children to stop being slave workers for others. I agree with that 100%. Let's run back to the phone line. 3236-2323-2543-1632 and of course, in the family of islands. 2423005720. Caller, you are on Guardian Radio today. What say you call her? Going once, maybe they stepped away. All right, we'll give them a second to call back. All right, so the texter made a very important point, right? Entrepreneurs can make more money than even some of these jobs that we're mentioning today, right? But let me just say the reason why I didn't start the show with entrepreneurship is because I think some of the best entrepreneurs, right, have worked for other people in the fields that they may become an entrepreneur in. Right? You have some great. I saw a story about a technician, right? A refrigerator technician, but he didn't just go straight into business. He worked for a hotel. Uh, he worked for other businesses. He learned about the industry. He. He basically got paid to learn how to fix a lot of the things that he now is able to fix. And then he started his company. Right? So I think the job can be used as a stepping stone. All right, I see the call is back. Let's get to the. To the. To the caller, Ms. Producer Call. Are you on Guardian Radio today? [00:34:41] Speaker C: Yeah. I would say the average person will not all of them come out for book work, so to speak. They are good with their hands, you know, and so they perform, doing what they do best with their hands. And so they're not necessarily bookworms. And so that is what they do. And some of them are very successful. They do very well. Some of them are the greatest. Some people, business people tend to be very successful, you know. So, I mean, the booking is credit houses, place where there's people who just basically good with their hands and they go that road. They make money doing it. [00:35:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. What type of work do you do? [00:35:32] Speaker C: I'm basically. I was electronic technician that I always wanted to do, but now I do vocals and I studied music, too. Okay, okay, so. [00:35:43] Speaker B: So you adopted. You had to adopt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:35:47] Speaker C: But that's all I'm basically saying. I mean, everybody, you know, not colored for the book week. You know, that's why they go do how to do best with their hands. And. Yeah, I'm very successful. [00:35:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:35:58] Speaker C: Make money every day. [00:35:59] Speaker B: Yeah, you know. Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you so much for your contribution, man. Appreciate it. Yeah, man, I agree with the color. You know, I have. I have students. And let me just say this. Working with your hands doesn't mean that you are a student who is, for the sake of this conversation, dumb. You ain't dumb. You just using A different tool. Because let me tell you something. If I call a plumber, I want a dumb plumber come. If I call a carpenter, I don't want no dumb carpenter come. If I call a mason, I want no dumb mason gum. You still got to be smart. All right, we're gonna run to a break and then we'll be right back here on Guardian radio today. Keep it locked. [00:36:58] Speaker A: When it comes to hearts at Cleveland Clinic, you can't miss a beat. You seek the best care possible, work with the brightest minds and leave no stone unturned to get to the heart of the matter. Because understanding is always the first step to overcoming for every heart in the world. See how we're advancing the future of heart care at Cleveland Clinic today. Great news. [00:37:27] Speaker B: Ron's Electric Motors new location on Cowpen Road right next to Island Lock is. [00:37:31] Speaker A: Open Saturdays and Sundays. [00:37:33] Speaker B: So for those needing repairs on electric motors, generators, welding machines, water pumps, battery charges, electric lifts, transformers and power tools, Ron's Cowpen Road location can have you up and running on weekends. [00:37:45] Speaker A: Don't forget, you can still visit Ron's. [00:37:47] Speaker B: Electric Motors on Wolf Road and Claridge Road. And now Ron's new location on Cowpen Road. Dial 356-0249 or 323-5267. Girl Junior Just show me Bella boy in his phone. What you mean? [00:38:00] Speaker A: He take picture of that good for nothing boy. [00:38:02] Speaker C: Shh. [00:38:03] Speaker A: You don't want butler hair. [00:38:04] Speaker B: You say that. [00:38:04] Speaker A: You know she always say that's my good child. [00:38:06] Speaker B: So what are you doing in junior phone? [00:38:08] Speaker A: Oh, he there. Cause the police looking for him. [00:38:10] Speaker C: He on that wanted list. [00:38:11] Speaker B: Wanted persons in your phone now. [00:38:13] Speaker A: Anybody quick, quick. After something happened, they can send pictures direct to your phone. [00:38:17] Speaker B: Go to Google Play or app store. [00:38:19] Speaker A: And search for crackwear in Bahamas. Then pick install and we'll go straight to your phone. There is also a section on missing persons. [00:38:25] Speaker C: Yes, girl. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Everybody needs to get this app so police can tell us right away when these people go missing. Just like an alert system. Yes, it has numbers for crime stoppers Bahamas so you can call and nobody know it's you. Call directly to Miami and give the information without giving your name or anything about you. I tried the other day and when. [00:38:43] Speaker A: I hear Junior and his boys talking about where they hide those guns, I. [00:38:46] Speaker B: Walk quick, quick round the corner and call that number. Call 328-8477 from Nassau or 242-300-8477 from the Family Islands. [00:38:55] Speaker A: This is Guardian Radio 96.9 FM. Fresh news. Smart talk all day. [00:39:14] Speaker B: And we're back here on Guardian radio today here 96.9 FM fresh news. Smart talk all day the Wednesday, August 13th edition. We're talking about the reality of, of how we're preparing our children. Are we preparing for our children for a future that no longer exists? Right. We're talking education, we're talking social skills. We're talking the realities of what it takes to actually be successful in tomorrow's world, which is really upon us right now. Going to the text line. Then we're going to go back to the phone lines. But the texter writes, why don't banks like to give entrepreneurs home loans or loans in general? My Lord. Seeing that entrepreneurs make more money than employees, we now have to retrain our kids to get a job and have a side hustle because it would take longer to save up $250,000. This is why the loans are important. But banks don't work with us. Let me say this text, though, I don't know that to be the case. Now. You, you, you, you may have experienced some things that obviously I haven't experienced. Right. I want to say something based on just, you know, some, some common sense understanding of how a person or why a person would give you a loan if your records are not in order. Ain't nobody giving you a loan. They're not going to give you a loan just because you're an entrepreneur. You may have the money on your bank account, but they will see your books. They want to understand how you are getting the money you're getting. And they, because they got, they got to be responsible for their, for each customer. Each. No, they say know your customer. Right. [00:41:03] Speaker C: You could be right. [00:41:03] Speaker B: Now, I'm not saying you're wrong, right. But, but I want to encourage all entrepreneurs to also look into hiring an accountant. And I know that's not easy starting out. When you first start out, you doing everything, but eventually, you know, if you can afford an accountant, right. I think that makes it easier for you to then go to a lending institution and let the accountant at least speak on your behalf with regards to how the monies are coming in because they speak in a language we regular people don't necessarily speak in. Right. One more text and then we're going to run to the phone lines. The caller was right. The persons who we honor that worked for the government got paid for the public funds for doing our job. We need to honor people who use their own money to help their communities. All right, that's, that's a valid point. It's Another show. But let's run to the phone lines here on Guardian Radio today. Caller, you are live on Guardian Radio today. What say you? [00:42:10] Speaker C: A female who called recently just heard two points about technology. And she pointed out, you know, kids today all have cell phones. Everyone's connected to Internet. And she also made the point that they're trying to keep the black man down or trying to keep black people down, like the race thing. But I feel like we connected to the same Internet, so there's not. We're all connected to the same information, the same World Wide Web. There's not a filter for your race about who gets knowledge, who gets access to information. We all have it. But the other point she made was that despite all these kids having these phones, it feels like the next generation is actually a little less knowledgeable than the last generation. I think part of that would be equivalent, would be like saying, look, we got all these numbers, houses everywhere in the Bahamas now. Why isn't more people winning more money? Right? Because we have all this access to entering the casino and the lottery. It's like, why are more people getting rich? [00:43:06] Speaker B: The house always wins. [00:43:08] Speaker C: Right? That's not how it works. Right. It's our cell phones. The way social media works is it's taking advantage of our attention. It's trying to capture our eyeballs and advertise us. So we're. We're the ones who are getting duped when we're plugging in more often than not. And I just think that's the next thing about the future that's going to be different is the future is AI. Right now, everyone's talking about AI. There's a lot of disruption that's coming with that. And I, I'm with you. I think we're definitely underprepared. [00:43:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Let me, let me say this one. There's something that another caller said that I think ties in to what that caller you're referencing spoke to another caller talked about. Especially in the black community, we seem to start over every generation, right? So my white friends who were in class with me, they didn't start over like there was a business in place. I went off to university. When I went off to school, a lot of them went straight to work for their families. When I came back with my degree, they already had their house. Now, that's nothing to do with racism. I'm just talking about the fact that the system, the system that we as black people are up against is not necessarily the same system generationally that, that some white Bahamians have had to deal with. That's just a fact. Matter of fact. So. So I wanted to plug that in now, you know what I'm saying? Because I think it's important that we understand the strengths and weaknesses of. Of what we're up against. You understand what I'm saying? But I appreciate you calling. Anything else you want to say before you leave? [00:44:41] Speaker C: No, I appreciate your show today, so thank you for sharing this information. [00:44:44] Speaker B: Thank you, man. I appreciate you calling. And I agree we are behind with regard to AI. Let's jump to the phone lines again here on Guardian Radio today. Are we preparing our children for a future that no longer exists? Are we aware of it? Are we aware that AI is here? Let's see if this next call is available. That other caller can call back. Give us a shout at 323-623-2325-431632-54259. Go ahead, call him. You're live. [00:45:16] Speaker C: I'm live? [00:45:17] Speaker B: Oh, you live all the way live. [00:45:19] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Uncle. First time caller. Uncle. [00:45:23] Speaker B: Uncle. Yes, indeed. Thank you for calling. [00:45:25] Speaker C: Okay. Good to call before the last one. He said something about everyone. You cut out to be bookworms, right? [00:45:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:36] Speaker C: I had a daughter. I have a daughter. She would beat every form. Every form. I always crack jokes. I tell my friends. I say, if I had the money that I spent on my daughter to high school, I would be rich. [00:45:54] Speaker B: My Lord. [00:45:55] Speaker C: When she graduated from high school, called kids who started coming out from college. [00:46:00] Speaker B: Ah, Lord. She struggled. [00:46:02] Speaker C: But, yeah, she said that she. She working now 11 years on the same job, going on 12. [00:46:09] Speaker B: Wow. [00:46:09] Speaker C: And she doing pretty good. [00:46:11] Speaker B: Excellent. I'm happy to hear that. [00:46:13] Speaker C: She's doing pretty good. [00:46:15] Speaker B: What field she went into. What field she went into? [00:46:19] Speaker C: She went into medical field. Okay. And she's doing pretty good. [00:46:23] Speaker B: Excellent. [00:46:24] Speaker C: Yes, sir. Anyway, that's all I call the thing. I tip my hat to the man who called before me because everyone in color to be bookworms. [00:46:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:46:34] Speaker C: You know, everyone in color to be brookwams. [00:46:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:38] Speaker C: Anyway, uncle, you. You do a good job, Uncle. [00:46:40] Speaker B: Thank you, man. I appreciate you calling, man. Okay, listen, that is such an important piece of this puzzle, right? Everybody who struggle through school is not necessarily going to struggle in the real world. All right. I have some friends who, they weren't at the top of the class necessarily. We didn't consider them dumb, but they weren't at the top of the class. They might have been in the middle, and sometimes they may have been at the back of the class, but I guarantee you today, they got house, they got land, they got boat. They found a way to maximize the skills that they do have in the world that we're living in today. And so I'm saying now, as we look at where education is today, and let's be clear, we cannot put the onus completely on the Ministry of Education, right? The Ministry of Education can only do so much. Your home is supposed to be a place where your children, that's the first place they, they supposed to start learning. If your home is not a place where your children can learn, you already in trouble. All right, I want to throw another prong into this, into this conversation. All right, we 90% plus people of African descent and it's important to say that because we had a caller who, who, who called recently and said, man, we learning about all this European history and we learn about pirates and Christopher Columbus etc, right? That has an effect especially on the children of African descent. All right, when you look in the news and you see who can lock up is usually our children of African descent. But let me throw this in the, in, into the, into the conversation. Research suggests that when black children learn about their history and heritage, including African history, it can positively impact their academic performance and overall well being. This is because studying black history can boost self esteem, foster a sense of identity and provide a more nuanced understanding of the world. All right, here's why learning black history can be beneficial for black students. I'm not going to go through all of this, but I'm going to share some of the highlighted points. There's an enhanced self esteem and identity. We're going to talk about this after news, right? There's an improved academic outcome. There's a broader understanding of history and the world. There's a counteracting of negative stereotypes. There's a promoting of empathy and critical thinking again. And there are other aspects that we're going to share after the news here on Guardian Radio today with your host, Dr. Cleveland W Eneas III, also known as Kahun Ankusara. We appreciate the text, we appreciate the calls. We'll jump right back into the text and the phone calls after this break. Keep it locked here at 96.9 FM. [00:50:07] Speaker A: This is Guardian Radio, your station for up to the minute news and intelligent. [00:50:13] Speaker B: Interactive and engaging conversations. [00:50:16] Speaker A: 96.9 FM. [00:50:30] Speaker B: And welcome back to Guardian Radio Today with your host star Cleveland W enius iii, also known as Kahunan Kusara. Are we preparing our for future that no longer exists? That's the conversation today. We're talking education and, and life skills. We're talking reality. Yeah. I do have a guest that was able to make it. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it, so I didn't announce him initially. But I'm very, very happy to have via Zoom today Dr. Ian Strawn. Can you hear me, my brother? [00:51:06] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Can you hear me? [00:51:08] Speaker B: I can hear you loud and clear, man. How you doing? Excellent. I'm great, man. I'm great. Just, Just throwing some ideas out here, so. So our people, you know, can. Can have something to think about while they shopping for back to school. [00:51:24] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:51:24] Speaker B: You know, so, Dr. Sean, just briefly give us a little understanding of kind of who you are and, and your, your career, et cetera, so people know who, who, who they're listening to. [00:51:37] Speaker A: Okay, so Ian Strawn has been talking about myself in third person as well. [00:51:44] Speaker B: Yes. [00:51:44] Speaker A: Yes. I'm a professor at the University of Bahamas. [00:51:48] Speaker B: Yes. [00:51:49] Speaker A: I've been there for 30 years. Got my doctorate in 1995. So this is the 30th anniversary of that. [00:51:58] Speaker B: Congratulations. [00:52:00] Speaker A: In English, I teach Caribbean literature, African literature, African American literature, film, drama, theater, creative writing, and English generally. And I've. I had a brief stint in the public system as a high school teacher, actually. Very brief, but it was definitely. It definitely made a huge impression. And I kind of come from a family of. Of teachers, and I'm actually the third generation because I have two siblings who also, three actually, besides me, went into teaching, went into education. So, yeah, learning and teaching are things that I've given my life to. And it's been great. It's been wonderful experience to be able to be a part of the journey of young people as they try to find their way. And also been a great experience to teach my own sons. I have three sons, and I've homeschooled them for part of their journey at different points, depending on what was going on with our family, what we felt was best for them. So I think I have the perspective of a parent as well, who's been dealing with having kids in school and so on, seeing it from the parent standpoint as well as seeing it from the standpoint of an educator, mostly at higher education level, but obviously also having homeschooled my sons when they were in elementary school. [00:53:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So, brother Ian, my question is. So, first of all, let's put on our parental gaps first. Right? You're looking at the world today, and you're trying to help your children navigate. Right. You know that they have their own goals and their Own aspirations. But you also know that there's a reality that they're gonna have to. Like. Like my daddy said, you can't live with me forever. Right. You gotta be able to deal with life on your own. What. What, as a parent, what. What are you seeing with regard to how your children are being educated and. And what the future holds? [00:54:32] Speaker A: You know, the first thing I would say is. And I realize that I. I was fortunate. My family was fortunate in the sense that I had the flexibility to be able to pull them out of school and work with them individually. And that's not. A lot of people don't have that privilege. [00:54:56] Speaker C: Right. [00:54:56] Speaker A: So I accept that. But I'd say that. [00:55:02] Speaker C: And I. [00:55:03] Speaker A: Having children of my own and seeing them be in school, it also has made me reflect on my own preparation, my own schooling. I went to public school my whole life because this was. No, we couldn't afford private school. [00:55:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:17] Speaker A: But I think one of the things that is abundantly clear to me is from my own education and from my own children's experience with schools is how it socializes you and doesn't socialize. So there are things that it feels. And this is gonna sound very negative, but there are things that school is beating out of you and beating into you. Right. That are not, in my opinion, necessarily all that good for the human person. [00:55:58] Speaker B: Wow. [00:55:59] Speaker A: But at the same time, they're all. There are. You know, we as a society, we've got to bring so many thousands of people along and we come up with the system and. And for most people, it should work all right. To provide them with certain level of. Numerous literacy skills and, you hope, also some values. But at the end of the day, really, the parent is the one who has got to take ultimate responsibility for the preparation of children for adult life. That's really the hardest job you'll ever have, in my opinion, is trying to shepherd somebody through childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood. I think that emotional intelligence is an area where schools are failing. I hate to start on the negative, but time is short. [00:56:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:56:54] Speaker A: Problem. Historical awareness, self concept. These are things that the school is not taking on intentionally. And I mean, that's. [00:57:06] Speaker C: That's all. [00:57:06] Speaker A: That right there is a mouthful. [00:57:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:57:09] Speaker A: You know. [00:57:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:10] Speaker A: So there's no focus on. On the. On to me, on the. The structure of the human personality and on the values that we really want to. That will lead to a peaceful society, a society of people who are okay with each other, are tolerant. Also, where they have an appetite to solve problems, they're used to Solving problems. [00:57:31] Speaker C: They are. Right. [00:57:33] Speaker A: So there are a lot of, there are a lot of gaps as we focus on the exam, on the glat, on the bjc, on the bcsc. [00:57:44] Speaker C: But. [00:57:44] Speaker A: I don't think there's enough focus on the person. [00:57:47] Speaker B: Wow. Wow. [00:57:49] Speaker A: And especially given our history of slavery and colonialism, I'm becoming more and more convinced that we just can't leave certain things to chance. And we have to address our students notion of who they are, where they come from, their history, their origin, and work against the world's white world project. And it might not even be an intentional project anymore, but the outcome is that we don't love ourselves and we don't value ourselves because the world doesn't seem to bother us. Right. [00:58:27] Speaker B: So, yeah. [00:58:28] Speaker A: So yeah. So to answer your question, I think there are, there are these gaps and there is the work that parents have to do in the home. And you'd like to think that the work that the work that the parents do is mirrored and reinforced by the school and vice versa. Right? Yeah, but not always so. [00:58:51] Speaker B: Right, right. And so a lot like you said, that's a mouthful obviously, but when we talk about the gaps. Right. You know, being an educator and being around the bureaucracy of education, how easy is it to make those changes? How easy is it to make those changes in education? You know, is it something, you know, I know as educators these conversations happen all the time. At least I know I have had them. But we're not in, we're not necessarily in control of, of the actual, the cogs in the system. How easy is it to make these changes within education so that our education can actually serve us as a people? [00:59:43] Speaker A: So the problem of education and it's whether or not it's fit for purpose, which is really the point of your, your show today. [00:59:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:56] Speaker A: Question you're asking today. [00:59:57] Speaker C: Right. [01:00:00] Speaker A: The solution is no different than the solution to the problems of health care and any number of other areas of national life, which is citizens need to be more engaged and more demanding because there is a bureaucracy, it is a gargantuan bureaucracy and there's a lot of politics. But at the end of the day, I think only pressure really is going to and things will move slowly. [01:00:36] Speaker C: Right. [01:00:36] Speaker A: So you know that it's going to take years to make that happen. But I think that it's, it's telling that that these things are left out and I think that more of us need to be advocates, more of us need to be John the Baptists if have to be. More of us need to Engage schools as parents and PTAs, and only pressure, power concedes nothing without demand is what Frederick Douglass said. And he was right. It's not even that it's intentional necessarily being in the system and education, I can tell you that basically people will do what they did last year. That's the plan. [01:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:25] Speaker A: Right. [01:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:01:27] Speaker A: You know, why change? [01:01:28] Speaker B: Right, Right. [01:01:29] Speaker A: So that's, that's the, that's the, that's the forward pressure, that's the momentum that you're trying to go against. That's the river you're trying to swim up stream against. [01:01:40] Speaker B: I think you. [01:01:45] Speaker A: As many people as have the mind to have the energy for it, have the will for it, and have the inspiration to start independent schools, they should. [01:01:56] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. [01:01:59] Speaker A: I think we need more alternatives that are affordable for people that can break down some of the challenges that are so structural. And you can do that in smaller numbers. You can do that in smaller numbers. I think what we need is more independent schools. We absolutely need more independent schools. [01:02:20] Speaker B: Right. [01:02:20] Speaker A: Schools that actually cater to the working class as well as to people making six figures or making seven $90,000 a year. Because, because, because everybody should have a right to, to again, I, I, I, I don't see, I'm thinking, I'm just trying to be realistic. [01:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:43] Speaker A: While we're trying to also change the larger system, we need to break away as much as possible when we can. So, like this is the only, only sensible thing to do because you only, you only have one, you have a certain window time to educate your child, you know. [01:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And so I said earlier in the show, I don't know if you were listening, but I, I, I have said repeatedly and over again that a lot of the standardized testing that the children are ultimately subject to, I, I call it a curse because yes, say you break away and you are able to start at independent school. You still, now, you know, you still got to make sure these children pass these standardized tests. Right. And a lot of it, especially after you pass a certain level, is a lot of cumbersome coursework and different things that I, I'm not saying it just doesn't have any place, but I think when you're trying to advance an education system, but you got to spend so much time doing what you did last year, like you just said it, it even, even from the independent perspective, it's like you still go from the grave. I don't, I don't know if you understand what I'm saying, if I'm making. [01:03:55] Speaker A: Sense, but let's try to. All right, so I've been thinking about the. Since you, since you reached out to me, I was thinking about your question, and I'll come back to that issue, but I think about your question. Are we preparing people for a future that doesn't exist? I think the first thing we have to realize is that. That education as a whole, which is trying to take every kind of learner, put them through one system and have them all come out the other end with certain competencies, Right? [01:04:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:40] Speaker A: There have been some fundamental omissions in how we prepare citizens. I mean, fundamental. Like big ones. Like, for instance. So you want to. You want to know if we're preparing them for the future. We haven't prepared them. We've never prepared them for the present, my Lord. I'll give you some examples. That sounds brazen. I know, I know, and I know I might upset some people, but just. [01:05:06] Speaker C: Think about it, right? [01:05:08] Speaker A: Archipelago, multiple islands surrounded by water, and yet most famous, cancer, my lord. [01:05:16] Speaker B: Wow. [01:05:17] Speaker A: So you have them for 12 years in a context of global warming, in a context where you are in a hurricane, inevitable that you will face storm surge because you have flat islands. And in 50 years, you had public schools and no way for them to learn how to swim. [01:05:42] Speaker B: Wow. [01:05:44] Speaker A: So. So again, what was education for? What was the infrastructure and all the investment in salaries and, you know, insurance and all of it? What was. What kind of person were we trying to produce? And I think this can sound so bad, but the neocolonial model that we just kept going with never really was intended to say, how do we prepare these people who live in this context to live and thrive in this context? Because if it did. If it did, you would think that some things would be fundamental. Like, one, you'd know how to swim. [01:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:33] Speaker A: Two, you know how to sail a boat. Three, you know how to grow food. [01:06:39] Speaker B: I mean, you spot on. You spot on. [01:06:43] Speaker A: You know how to grow food for a healthy number of you. Not all of you would, Would, Would not be intimidated by machines and how they work and how they are made and how they function, you know, and maintain and repair motors. [01:06:58] Speaker C: Mm. [01:06:58] Speaker A: Machines. Because, you know. [01:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:01] Speaker A: It's a mechanized age. [01:07:02] Speaker B: Yep, Yep. [01:07:04] Speaker A: Right. And so these are just fundamental things. You, you, you would know your history. [01:07:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:12] Speaker A: You would know that. That, you know, Africa is a complex place with a rich history, and your lineage goes beyond these islands. [01:07:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:26] Speaker A: You know that. You'd know that. So there are fundamental things that we just didn't take the time to, it seems to me to say well, this is. What is the outcome. [01:07:39] Speaker C: Right. [01:07:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:41] Speaker A: So fundamentally. And so back to the. So we haven't prepared, we have not prepared our people for the present. Which is why, and I've said this at the university level, this is why University of the Bahamas is not graduating more marine biologists, agriculturalists, geologists, meteorologists. Right. So you think of the nation where the nation's needs, what you need in a citizen. And then you work back with how do we prepare? How do we prepare people for that? How do we make them ready to live? [01:08:14] Speaker B: Right. [01:08:15] Speaker A: So now, of course, we're in this digital age where. And we are just, we are just consumers, we're not producers. [01:08:21] Speaker C: Right. [01:08:22] Speaker A: Because again, the building blocks aren't there. Right. So we definitely are prepared for the future. We are prepared to be consigned to a particular role which is a subservient role. [01:08:33] Speaker B: Wow. [01:08:35] Speaker A: And one could be again, controversial by saying that's what the system is intended. [01:08:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:42] Speaker C: Right. [01:08:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:44] Speaker A: So. [01:08:48] Speaker B: I, I think, you know, everything you, you, you, you've said, I would pray, I would pray, right. That in, in the, you know, in the minds and the hearts of educators, I would pray to these thoughts at some point enter their mind. [01:09:09] Speaker C: Right. [01:09:10] Speaker B: And I know it's difficult when you. Trying to, like you say, to navigate all these different types of learners through a system that in many instances it's not as much of a cookie cutter situation as it was. Right. I, I've seen the emphasis now on the technical skills, etc. Which I, which I applaud the ministry for. Right. I've seen it. The, you know, we got this new history book that, that's supposed to be coming out soon that's going to address some of the things that you just talked about. Right. My, my, my biggest concern is always, you know, how many generations are we going to lose while we try to make these changes? Because like you say, you got a certain window of opportunity and each, each graduates. Right. Those 60, 70,000 students, how many students it is that graduate every year, every time we don't get it right. It's like we watching the social decay increase. You know, I don't know if I'm making a proper correlation here or if you see it the same way, but I, yeah, I want to, I want to talk a little bit more about that. We got to run to a break here on Guardian Radio today. Our guest today, Dr. Ian Straughan, seasoned veteran educator, playwright, and, and ultimately a Bahamian who loves this country. And we're talking about whether or not we are Preparing our children that no longer exists. Keep it locked here on Guardian Radio 96.9 FM. Back right after this. [01:11:02] Speaker A: For fast, reliable and impactful printing services, look no further. Let Printmasters bring your masterpiece to life. We stand by our quality products that are second to none. Our affordable pricing and friendly, efficient staff makes Printmasters the ultimate choice for all your printing needs. We can deliver any tool, type of printing services from banners to booklets to business cards. [01:11:22] Speaker B: You name it, we can print it. [01:11:24] Speaker A: Let print masters bring your masterpiece to. [01:11:27] Speaker C: Located the Nassau Guardian Building. [01:11:29] Speaker A: Telephone 302-2361. Chicken lovers, listen up. [01:11:33] Speaker C: Popeyes is serving it up for you. Get five pieces of juicy hand battered bone and chicken for just $10. That's right, five pieces of Louisiana style food flavor fried to golden crispy perfection for only $10. [01:11:49] Speaker A: But don't wait. [01:11:50] Speaker C: This deal won't last forever. Head to your nearest Popeyes today and. [01:11:54] Speaker A: Grab your five piece for just $10. [01:11:57] Speaker C: Popeyes, where the chicken's always worth the hype. Available for a limited time only. Now let me see now three. [01:12:03] Speaker A: I see. [01:12:04] Speaker B: Hello, hello. This, this Epic echid battery. [01:12:07] Speaker C: This Ms. Bueller from around the corner. [01:12:09] Speaker B: I hear you are selling tires now. [01:12:11] Speaker A: On Wolf Road too. [01:12:13] Speaker B: Praise the Lord. [01:12:14] Speaker A: It's about time I left Fox Hill and Fire Trail. [01:12:17] Speaker C: It's too far. That ain't all. [01:12:19] Speaker B: They open Monday to Friday, 7am to 7pm on Sunday and holiday 8am to. [01:12:24] Speaker A: 4Pm My brother Sam, he's a hacker. [01:12:27] Speaker B: And he could go right there and get fix up. Call us at 326epic. We ship also to the family island. [01:12:35] Speaker A: Love the show, want to give your support. [01:12:37] Speaker C: Become a sponsor today. [01:12:38] Speaker B: Call 302-2300 for our rates and packages. [01:12:42] Speaker A: That's 302-2300. [01:12:44] Speaker B: Become a sponsor on Guardian Radio 96.9 FM Fresh News Smart Talk all day. [01:12:53] Speaker A: This is Guardian Radio 96.9 FM Fresh. [01:13:09] Speaker B: And welcome back to Guardian Radio Today with your host, Dr. Cleveland W. Eneas III, also known as Kahunan Kusara. And I'm here with my special guest today, Dr. Ian Straughn. We're talking education and, and how we're preparing the next generation and how the systems that, you know, we've used for over 50 years now, they haven't necessarily prepared us for today, much less the future. And that's not in all instances. Right? We are living testament to that right? But we understand that just because some of us have made it to a certain point, that's that doesn't speak to the Collective well being of our people. I want to read a text and then I want to run to the phone lines in just a second. This text says many of the public workers would not make a living if it was not for their chance. I can highlight that point. Government connections. Many of them cannot make it in the private sector. They need to be productive in private sector to keep their jobs. Brother Ian, this idea of nepotism, or not even nepotism, just who you know, I think that's been a skill that we've kind of. You kind of got to know somebody to get some things done in this country, you know? [01:14:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I think if who you know is more important than what you know, that's something that will be felt viscerally by the people and they will act accordingly. Right. So you have a political system of patronage. You have. It's a small place, certain. Only certain people are the gatekeepers. [01:14:58] Speaker C: And. [01:15:00] Speaker A: And yeah, so there is a sense, you know, let's be honest, it's also about some degree the level of prosperity we have enjoyed. [01:15:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:14] Speaker A: Some of it through tourism, some of it through smuggle smuggling activities that we have perfected over the centuries. [01:15:30] Speaker C: But. [01:15:32] Speaker A: So I think there's been some level of. What's the word? Not everybody's convinced that they need to try that hard school to be able to make it, make a living, get a job. [01:15:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I ain't gonna use this. What you teach me this for? I ain't gonna use this. I ain't gonna need this much. [01:15:51] Speaker A: Right. There's a certain level of students quickly develop a sense of the irrelevance of school. And that's partly because we don't really not bring real life into the classroom on one level. [01:16:06] Speaker C: Right. [01:16:06] Speaker A: But then there's also just economic factors, push and pull factors, and the kinds of things that you can make a living doing. And so people. There is that element of it. [01:16:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:16:23] Speaker C: Right. [01:16:24] Speaker A: But again, when that's the approach we take, or so we've enjoyed a certain level of comfort for a time, but the pressures are increasing. Cost of living is increasing. Pay is not rising along with the cost of living. In fact, what you can buy with the money today is less than what you could have bought 30 years ago. [01:16:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:16:50] Speaker A: So we're entering this moment where Bahamians are feeling pressure from below. Right. And pressure from above, and they're getting squeezed and. And then it really does become. Do I have the skills to adapt and do I have the wherewithal to really take advantage of more of the upper levels of this Economy, Right? And then the question becomes, how have you been prepared? What do you have that's prepared you to be able to do that? And so that's part of the problem, right? So we are not for economic and political reasons in owning the economy. There's a level at which we can enter and participate, but that level is not producing the kind of compensation that we. We're going to need to be able to make it in the Bahamas. [01:17:57] Speaker B: We got some phone, some phone callers who want to jump in on here. Producer, let's, let's get to the Phone lines, please. 3236-2323-2543-1632-54259. Family Islands, 2423-5720. You on Guardian Radio today. What say you? [01:18:19] Speaker C: Yes, good afternoon, brother. And Good afternoon to Dr. Strawn. [01:18:22] Speaker B: Yes, good afternoon, man. [01:18:25] Speaker C: But my question is, how do we prepare for a future that we are uncertain of, that we have no control of? You know, we don't know what tomorrow may bring. So how do you prepare? I think it'll be the same for sure. We can see that the world is becoming more automated and stuff like that, where, you know, human labor is being faded out. Right? So I guess one of the best ways to prepare students is to get them a skill, make them get a skill that cannot, that AI or automation cannot replace. That would be the best thing. Search for a trade or a skill that cannot be replaced by automation. Right? But because, uncle, when you were saying that the Ministry of Education is not to blame or certain things like that, I feel as if they are. I feel as if the curriculum that is in place is inadequate. Then no matter what you teach, you won't get the results that you're looking for because the curriculum itself is already wanting. And furthermore, we've been talking about this de average thing. People look at it from different perspectives. But the bottom line is that we have been talking about it and the only information or the only word we have heard from the Ministry of Education, it's kind of like to try and make it okay, you know what I mean? There's been no real steps to improve that. So the Ministry of Education is failing. Not only is it failing in the curriculum that is offered in the school, but it's failing in terms of trying to correct certain issues that are going on right now. It's as if they don't even care. It's as if it's a part of the plan, you understand, where I come in from? And I mean, and to be honest, with you to go on a little. I believe that the Future, Anku, and Dr. Strawn is going to be one where we don't have nations anymore. I believe the future is going to be one of corporations, because in America, Donald Trump just passed. Donald Trump just passed something called a genius act or the genius bill. And it has to do with digital currency. And what it does is it opens the door for corporations like Amazon and Facebook to have their own currency. Only nations have their own currency. So we are moving into a future where nations are. No, you and I, we won't have any rights. You and I will only become a commodity. You and I will only be a product disposable to the. To the corporations. Because basically only and truthfully, corporations already run things. Now they run it from behind the scenes where they lobby our leaders to do whatever it is that they want to do. So whatever direction the world is headed in right now is based on corporate. Corporate direction. But like I said, the way to prepare a man go is to get them a skill that cannot be automated. I agree for the time, brother. [01:21:05] Speaker B: Thank you for the call, man. Let's run to this next call and then we'll. We'll hear from. From our guest, Dr. Straw. Call. Are you on Guardian Radio today? [01:21:13] Speaker C: All right. Good afternoon, uncle. How you doing? [01:21:15] Speaker B: Hey, my brother. How you doing, man? [01:21:16] Speaker C: Right here, man. And good afternoon, Dr. Straw. How you doing? [01:21:19] Speaker A: Afternoon. Good afternoon. [01:21:21] Speaker C: How are you? [01:21:22] Speaker A: Good, good. [01:21:24] Speaker C: Right. And good afternoon to the nation. The conversation, uncle, and even before Dr. Strawn came on, that part of your conversation, it requires such a comprehensive approach. Right. But picking up with what you all are talking about right now, let's look at the job market in our country and readiness. Right. And we do still have the expertise residing within country to fill all of those areas that Dr. Strawn was pointing to that the classroom, per se, is not preparing Bahamians for as a. As an island, an archipelago surrounded by water, predominantly. Right. And however, looking at the job market, the biggest job market in the. In the world or on the planet is what. Uncle. Or what doctors run. What is the biggest sector for employment? [01:22:27] Speaker B: For employment, Yes. I don't know. I know. Telecommunications or. [01:22:31] Speaker C: No, tourism. [01:22:32] Speaker B: Okay, okay, well, for employment. Okay, okay, I got you. [01:22:36] Speaker C: By far, tourism is the single largest and will be for the foreseeable future. Right. And the Bahamas, we are pretty strong in that area, right. Of tourists coming to the country. Right. However, I think where we are feeling. And let me make this point before I even delve into that. And so not all of us will be academics, right? As you all know, as you all already know, some of us will be academic, some of us will be technically minded, some of us will be blue collar minded, some of us will be orange, orange economy minded, etc. Some of us will be tourism related minded, right? Some of us will be real estate managers and developers minded, right? Some will be lawyers, some of the doctors. But by far, tourism will account for the largest, single largest employment privately in the country. And not only in our country, but anywhere on the planet, right? And so with that being the case, right. I believe that we have to focus more on extracting the benefits that exist currently in tourism, the byproduct of tourism. We need to place a serious and keen emphasis on extracting those byproducts. It's almost like you grow tomatoes, right? You have an overabundance of tomatoes, right? What do you do? You can have excess tomatoes, right? And so those byproducts, or even with sand and making glass, etc. And all the other products, right? Right. And so the byproducts of tourism could be just as valuable as the tourism product if we become experts in focusing on ensuring that the Indians see those benefits, can access those benefits, have the support benefits, have the legislation to protect those benefits, the regulation to protect those benefits, and the human resources to oversee the management. [01:24:32] Speaker B: So let me ask those. I'm with you. I'm following you. I'm following you. What I want to stick in, into, into everything you're saying is like when you talk about the orange economy and when you talk about all of the different ways in which people learn and ultimately bring their skills to the table, right? [01:24:49] Speaker C: Right. [01:24:49] Speaker B: Knowing that tourism is what it is, right? It is that which we basically are going to be dependent on for a very long time. Are we incorporating the autonomy, the blue collar economy, etc. Into tourism as well as we can? [01:25:06] Speaker C: Absolutely not. Absolutely not, right. As a matter of fact, this current administration right now, right? And this is not about politics, I got you commentary. I'm just acknowledging the realities of what is necessary for us to get out of the tourism plan. What we need the current administration right now, I feel is trying their best and doing a decent job of trying to bring the readiness. Readiness is very lack. Look, man uncle and Dr. Strong and the nation. I was in China recently, right? I went over there to do a business call, right? I was over there for just under a month, right? And one of the things that I recognize, I already knew it, but one of the things I recognize instantly in being in the. In their study and seeing how they're seeing the business side and the. On the book side and the technical side. Right. Is they. Their readiness is perhaps. [01:26:05] Speaker B: Explain what you mean by readiness. Explain what I mean by. Explain what you mean by readiness. [01:26:10] Speaker C: The level of education that they put into ensuring that they have the engineers. [01:26:15] Speaker B: Okay. [01:26:16] Speaker C: The lawyers, the doctors. [01:26:17] Speaker B: So they could take advantage. They could take advantage. They can take advantage of the opportunities. [01:26:22] Speaker C: Yeah, they are. They are. They are ready right now from day one, but not from day one because it's a plan that they've been executing over the last 50, 60 years. Right. In particular, over the last 20 years where they've made the biggest jumps, the platinum jumps in this part of what we are discussing right now. Their readiness puts them in a position that they can capitalize and take full advantage to the benefits of Chinese the world over. In particular in China, for any industry that you have going on in your country. That is where we need to be as a small island developing nation in particular that is non focused on manufacturing and development, that is primarily service oriented. We need that preparation. That preparation is what is going to bridge the gap. Yeah. [01:27:09] Speaker B: And I like that. I want. Give doctor. Dr. Str a chance to, to respond. And I got another call up. [01:27:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you for the opportunity. [01:27:17] Speaker B: I appreciate it. My brother, Dr. Straw, he. [01:27:20] Speaker A: I think the, the challenge for us is that there are, there are economic, political and economic, structural issue, us being able to benefit as fully as we ought from tourism. [01:27:45] Speaker C: Right. [01:27:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:27:46] Speaker A: So we knew, we knew from the white paper, Independence in 1972, that we needed to diversify the economy, for instance. Yes. Tourism isn't going anywhere. He's right. It's a global, huge and the biggest industry, no doubt in the world. But we used to be the leader in this region and not so much in some ways. Some would argue that we've been losing ground. [01:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:28:16] Speaker A: But the question has to be for us, how do we get the returns? As he's so passionately conveying, he wants to see us get the returns and that. And, and that's got to be, that's got to be about policy. But the problem is that the scale of tourism that we committed to mass tourism and our own size and the cost of production have worked against us so that to deliver the products for a hotel resort, the magnitude of Atlantis or Hamar put tremendous pressure on local growers, et cetera. And we have not been able to solve that on a major scale in 50 years. We have some success. [01:29:08] Speaker C: Right. [01:29:09] Speaker A: At some level, but the Capacity building all along the chain to allow us to be able to, to not import things that we could in fact produce that, that stuff that just hasn't been realized. And then the other part of it, the problem with scale of course is now you're talking about a multinational that owns it. [01:29:32] Speaker B: Right. [01:29:33] Speaker A: Even, even, even when it. And that's the other part is wanting to win. [01:29:38] Speaker B: Exactly. Yes. [01:29:40] Speaker A: And even where we have the opportunity to own, which is in now second home, you know. [01:29:45] Speaker B: Yes. [01:29:46] Speaker A: Airbnbs family islands, let's say where you don't have mega resorts. Fine. Even there we're being recolonized. Foreigners are able to come and buy beachfront property, set up a house. They live in Connecticut but they collecting. Yeah, collecting you know, short term rental in the Bahamas and we are hired to clean and fix the water heater if it gives you a problem. So. So we're not owning in that field in, in on a small scale either. [01:30:21] Speaker B: Wow. [01:30:22] Speaker A: So again. And how do you address that? That's got to be moving away from education to some extent. But you got to be intentional about the behavior. Ownership is actually a priority. [01:30:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:34] Speaker A: Has it ever been a priority? [01:30:36] Speaker B: I don't, I don't think so. [01:30:37] Speaker A: I don't think it has been. [01:30:38] Speaker B: No. [01:30:38] Speaker C: Right. [01:30:39] Speaker A: So how do you educate people for ownership? How do you educate people for ownership rather than for just looking for a job? That's an interesting question. I don't necessarily have an answer on the tip of my tongue. [01:30:58] Speaker B: I would say definitely you have to start with this idea of a self esteem, this idea of understanding what we were before, you know, the Bahamas, going back into our African roots or whichever you know your ancestry is, you know, going back to, to the greatest point of your ancestry and saying this is who you are. I don't think we've done enough of that. I want to read a text and then we got a couple of phone calls. Texas says same tourism is the biggest employer is too shallow. This is a response to Anton's call. It says you have a, you have, you have to examine what that tourism is and I think that's what you just talked about Dr. Strawn. The scale of it. Right. If it's major league sports, World Cup, ATP tour, a list concerts, Wimbledon, you will be talking about technical skills and high paying jobs. Minimum wage hotel and private cruise island jobs is not a future future. We want to build our future on. Tourism is fine. But the configuration for nation building has to be drastically different. I think they kind of hitting on what you talking about here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, let's run back to the phone lines. We got a couple more calls and then we gotta get out of here at 2 o'. Clock. Caller, you're live on Guardian Radio today. [01:32:21] Speaker C: Yes, good morning to both doctors in the house. [01:32:24] Speaker B: How you doing? [01:32:26] Speaker C: I'm sorry, John. And you came in at the closest of the 1:30 hour. Yeah, but I just want to touch on a couple of points. For one, we often tourism in the Bahamas. We have to just Simply look for 24 years. The numbers don't lie. We have, we have yet in 24 years to hit to break the 1.8 million tourist barrier. We brag about 11.2 million tourists. But when you extrapolate the monies made from there, if you were to put the whole 11.2 million as stopover visitors would be equivalent to 450,000 stopover visitors. And so we are being colonized. The problem is that we have yet to own the tourism and the hospitality market. I know they are closely related, but they are distinct sectors and we often combine them both. And so the problem is that if you look at the 1.8 million and we talk about even the not needing additional rooms when we average about 60 to 65% occupancy. And so when you look at the occupancy where we can find out a means to look, examine the means to fix that, then we could almost double the GDP that comes from the stopover visitors, just from bringing the occupancy level closer into the 90%. But at the same time there is and we have new methods of banking and access to capital, but we are locked into the anti created 20th century mindset of banking and financial services. And a good example of that is what in his one bill, the genius bill and the clarity bill that's being considered and we were a little ahead of the curve, but we may have copied and pasted and not understand the role that we could come into it. Though I hear during the political conversation now concerning opportunities for behemoths to enter to that market, more so to finance bohemian. But to the doctor you mentioned about the education purpose, the problem is if you start billing for today, you are ready too late because by time you finish today we would have been we'll be into tomorrow. And I often talked when I talk to the young people, I say to them today is the tomorrow, I told you today. And so what we have to do is we have to now move to an education system. And I hear that we talk about technical skills when technical skills now require more technological Awareness than what most people will think that the technical skills of yesterday do. But we need an education system that basically can in real time assess our abilities and develop skills tailored for each person progress. And at the same time I use this concept called adapt, adapt. And so that skill levels as we adjust the levels is automatically adjusted to match each of those education system while at the same time in the peak providing help as they develop and then track progress so they can develop at the skill level they have. But then we had. I'm not going to keep too long, but we have in the last 1015 I mentioned of 41 different economic models models that is possible within the Bahamas. And so when you start looking at these digital economy, conceptual economy, aquamarine economy, green economy, energy economy, token economy, circular economy, blue economy, all of these different. [01:35:44] Speaker B: Things, I want you to come on and talk about that one day, man. [01:35:47] Speaker C: But I'm just saying this, why then if we just look at putting five people in each of those models because most of those models is part of a broader conceptual economy type environment that based on a knowledge based economy. If we could just put 500 people in each of those, what impact we would have on the economy because access to capital is available. If you take off the blindness and let me end in saying this, Listen this very carefully, doctor. [01:36:13] Speaker B: All right, we got another caller. [01:36:15] Speaker C: I'm ending to this. I want to say this. People often remain in the dark, not due to lack of light, but a failure to open their eyes. My Lord, if you look right in the room to you right now, you can see all the equipment and I asked you to close your eyes and did they go anywhere? And the eyes I'm talking about is the mind. The light is in that room, the microphone is in the room, everything is there. But if your mind is closed, if your eyes is closed, you wouldn't see it. [01:36:41] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I love it, I love it, I love it. Let's run to this next caller and, and then read a text and then we can give Dr. Strawn the last word. Carly, you're live on Guardian radio today. [01:36:53] Speaker C: Good day. How you do? [01:36:55] Speaker B: I'm great, man. [01:36:55] Speaker C: Is this Dr. Ian Strawn? [01:36:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Dr. Ian Strawn is our guest today. Yes. [01:37:00] Speaker C: Okay, he, he must be for his age, one of the smartest Bahamian men. [01:37:08] Speaker B: Yes. [01:37:08] Speaker C: In this country. [01:37:09] Speaker B: I agree. [01:37:10] Speaker C: Okay, Ian Strong, you remember this? Eight wheel is. Eight wheel is four wheel something when you did on ZNF a million years ago. [01:37:22] Speaker A: And eight wheels means six wheels. [01:37:23] Speaker C: This is your neighbor, Julian Ferguson. [01:37:26] Speaker A: Okay, okay, okay, thank you for calling. [01:37:29] Speaker C: But what I wanted silent Johnson spoke for about five to seven minutes. Say two things. What he just said. Any two things. What he just said again. [01:37:41] Speaker B: But he talked about the various. I want to talk more about these economic models he was talking about. Right. I think that's what you. [01:37:48] Speaker C: You ever. You ever had a conversation with somebody who. You can't envy them because they're smart. You can't envy them now, but they're just too smart to teach somebody something. He has a lot of education. You can't take it from him. [01:38:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:38:03] Speaker C: And I have an idea he knows what he's saying. [01:38:05] Speaker B: Mm. [01:38:07] Speaker C: He can't break that down to me. Yeah, well, the same thing that he said. I guarantee you, if Ian Strong say the same exact thing that he say, I could repeat everything what he said. [01:38:17] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Dr. Ian Strong is an educator. C. Allen is not an educator in that. Right. But I do understand what you're saying. [01:38:26] Speaker C: And I want to say this in closing. You are now sitting this. As long as I have anything to do with it, I think I've lived two piece of influence. The next president of the University of Obama. I pray I gone on that. I'm telling you. Yeah, yeah, I'm going on that. [01:38:46] Speaker B: Yes, yes. This text says the Airbnb. The government is sleeping in all of these Airbnb taxing people out of the business to look. To look in every Bahamian hole to look for money, rather than taxing our visitor and investors. So now they're going off to the Airbnb market. And Dr. Stran, you were just mentioning that we're being colonized in that sector as well. [01:39:11] Speaker A: I would just say to the average parent, you know, be mindful, watch your kids. And you have. You know them better than the school does. See what you can do to supplement the areas that you see are lacking. Maybe after school weekend experiences, maybe things that you have to do as a family, things you want to expose them to. There are lots of wonderful resources online. You just have to sift through all the nonsense, but you have a part to play in helping you prepare your child for adult life in emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, in terms of habits, work ethic. All right. There's a lot that goes into it and that you can model and you can supplement. You don't have to just depend on what the school can and cannot do. [01:40:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:03] Speaker A: There's church, there's civic organizations, there's athletics they could get involved in and just try to be mindful that you want them to be resilient. To love, to learn and to find peaceful solutions to problems. To talk and to listen. [01:40:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:21] Speaker A: And have empathy and. And to discover what those gifts are that they have that God has given them, because those gifts can be a blessing to them in whatever realm they. They manifest. Thanks for having me. [01:40:33] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I'm just putting you on notice that some of the texts are asking for part two and part three to this conversation. Yes, yes. And also your good friend Angelique. All right. Thank you so, so much for being our guest today here on Guardian Radio. And, you know, our listeners, to our callers, to the texters, you know, each of us have a part to play in making this country the best, best little country in the world. And so we encourage these type of conversations as much as possible, and not just the conversations where you got to act on it. So we thank you all for listening. Keep it locked here on Guardian Radio, 96.9 FM, where we have fresh news. Smart talk all day. I want to say Namastu about to the divinity in each and every one of you. Have a great day.