Nature farm helping kids behave better

A Manchester businesswoman and her husband have been using a nature park they built to help children in central Jamaica to become model students and better Jamaicans.

The couple offer tours to well-behaved primary school students. The best of those students are then awarded trophies. The latest batch of children received their prizes on December 18.

This unique programme, dubbed Acknowledging and Rewarding fine conduct in Schools, has been endorsed by the Ministry of Education, said Mitsy Wright Pryce who, along with her husband, Levi, started the initiative in May, 2015 - Child Month.

"That programme went so well we had schools calling wanting to participate," Wright Pryce said, revealing that since the programme was introduced, principals and their teachers are having a hard time selecting which of their classes is the most

disciplined.

About three years ago, Wright Pryce and her husband acquired an acre of land near Newport in Manchester and, over the next two and a half years, proceeded to transform it into a sanctuary for birds and animals, a herbal garden and hike trail that she now refers to as the 'capital of Heaven'. It was about that time that she began to take notice of the repeated complaints about the lack of discipline in schools and decided to play her part in making a difference.

"I used to hear about the discipline in schools, and how the discipline pop down, and I was just thinking 'nobody not doing anything about this and I said 'why don't you do something about it in your little neck of the woods?" said the mother of six children whose ages range from five to 22 years. "I know a lot of emphasis is placed on education, as well it should, but the biggest of our problems does not rest with the lack of education; it starts with the lack of discipline in our

society."

She said because of the lack of discipline among students, life is a lot harder for teachers. "What we need to realise is that it's hard to teach undisciplined children," she declared.

About 18 schools from Manchester, St Elizabeth and Westmoreland have participated in the programme so far, and the results have been positive.