[CH Note: Marvin, a former math teacher in Kingston, works with Jamaica’s inner city children, using Legos robots and other programs to teach logic and problem solving skills. TED-UK interview | Stanford ]
May 26 e-mail
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Just wanted you to know what I am fine inspite what has been happening. It has sparked a real war between the criminal gangs and the security forces and may not end anytime soon. Many gangs are also using the opportunity to retaliate on other factions, separate and apart from defending the arrest of the sought after drug king pin. The vicious cycle continues as gangs attack the police and the police later retaliate, and then the gangs attack again.
Many former students reside in some of the warring communities but I am in touch with them and know that they are safe, if not traumatized. The direct impact on our current Lego Yuh Mind Jrs Robotics Club has been our inability to have meetings to prepare for the Moonbots challenge submission on May 28. It is unlikely that we will be able to complete our entry by then.
Schools have not opened this week and while persons still go to work, they try to be home by noon.
It is traumatic time for the nation as the death toll from violent clashes rise every day and the flare ups spread to more and more parts of the country, not just in Kingston. To add insult to injury, reports are that the Dudus, the druglord, is still not captured.
On a brighter note, preparations for our summer programme are well underway with online registration being facilitated through our ‘finally’ updated website, www.hallsoflearning.com. This year we added another course, “Artful Bricksters”, to teach mosaics and sculptures with LEGO. Also, we will introduce a brand new (non-lego based) programme, “Puzzle Yuh Brain” where children solve puzzles and play games that develop their strengths in logic, deduction, problem solving etc. Our outreach will continue to expand, and is ever more important in light of the mental rebuilding that will need to take place.