"status quo'', has decided to withdraw from public life. Here, the former Permanent Secretary of Health and Social Services explains why.

Mainly for health reasons, but also because I believe that I have made whatever contribution I can to the well-being of Bermudians, I have decided the time has come for me to hang up my gloves, with the possible exception of an occasional Letter to the Editor.

I do hope that what I have to say will not sound too much like sour grapes or the frustrations of a senior citizen who has spent his professional lifetime questioning the status quo and tilting at the windmills of the powers that be.

I say this even though it's my impression that neither side of the political spectrum has ever come to grips with the nuts and bolts and implications of what I have had to say about human relations, teacher effectiveness, or child behaviour and development. 'Phone calls and pats on the back, yes, but never anything that in any way resembles the support for or concern about what I consider to be symptoms rather than causes of our problems -- such as AIDS, drug abuse, Independence, and the environment. All of which deserve the attention they are beginning to receive, but none of which will stem the tide of delinquents, school failures, mounting prison population, escalation of racial tension, and gap between have-too-much and have-too-little.

I will not deny that this lack of a response was frustrating, especially to someone with my "do it now'' temperament. However, I have concluded that one of the penalties of questioning the status quo is that it unleashes emotions ranging from fear to unease in most of us, either because we feel threatened or because we are more comfortable with the devil we know than the skeleton in the closet.

Applying this to myself, I believe that I have been so stereotyped as a radical with questionable motivations that any usefulness I have had as an agent of agent is at an end, and it would be most unrealistic to expect it to be otherwise.

Of course, this is frustrating. However, everything I have read or experienced in a fairly full life convinces me that this is the way most of us are constructed. Further, I have come to regard it as democracy's, as well as humanity's, self-protective check and balance that has positive and negative aspects. I think this is why, when the time for real change becomes overdue, society looks to those who have not been identified as regularly questioning the status quo. Sometimes, even the best intentions backfire if not properly thought through and we want to make sure there is a steady hand at the wheel.

Unless the times are such that we throw caution to the winds and get carried away by the blandishments of fanaticism and ideology and the usual disastrous consequences that follow.

Be that as it may, I would like to offer the following observations as I hang up my gloves and retire from the fray.

First, there is the surprise and disappointment I felt when reviewers described my book "Shackles of the Past'' as controversial. I was upset because I had discarded almost 100 pages of my original draft because they documented actions that would have caused considerable embarrassment to Government, the Opposition, labour, and management. All of which information, by the way, which could have been obtained by any inquiring journalist or other interested individual and would have involved no violation of civil service regulations or ethical procedures.

As I say, such an expose was part of my original intent when I began "Shackles of the Past''. However, when I became aware of the major implications of the present and future well-being of Bermudians and Bermuda of my proposals concerning human relations and teacher effectiveness in my book, I realised that I should remove whatever I could that might further alienate the powers that be. I did not want to distract attention from my proposals, which I believed offered the potential for doing more for the well-being of Bermudian children -- especially the disadvantaged -- than any remedial programme that I know of here or abroad and at considerably less cost.

Also, I tried to avoid unnecessary controversy because an objective review of the various Ministers I had served in the Ministry of Health and Social Services forced me to recognise that they were decent, hard-working Bermudians who were motivated by a concern about Bermuda, although we often parted company in our convictions about what needed to be done to deal with the problem at hand.

Yet, in spite of our differences, we all cared about our children and Bermuda and we shared a concern about the underground of suspicion and hostility that so often is camouflaged by the `Bermuda is another world' of knee socks, cricket, and smiling faces. Also, I learned much from each Minister I served, especially in being forced to check my tendency to let my bleeding heart carry me away without sufficient supportive documentation or consideration of the realities of Party politics.

But, to return to the reaction to "Shackles of the Past'' as controversial.

This was a surprise and was upsetting because I had felt that my very specific proposals concerning the necessity of having any programme of educational reform based on the training and availability of effective teachers would receive serious consideration by the Ministry of Education, the Amalgamated Bermuda Union of Teachers, Parent Teachers groups, the Opposition, or at least a group of concerned Bermudians. Surely, so important a matter would encourage us to rise above the pettiness of personalities and politics.

And here I want to stress that I was not expecting unqualified agreement and I was honestly prepared to consider any information that challenged the research concerning teacher effectiveness that I had quoted that might be presented.

Nor did I consider that my involvement would be required in order to explore or implement the proposals. There are many people with far more competence than I have whose experience should be tapped.

After waiting over a year without response from anyone in officialdom, on March 28, 1990 I wrote to the Minister of Education (copied to the Premier) and requested a meeting. In a letter dated April 2, 1990, the Permanent Secretary of Education acknowledged my letter and said the Minister had asked that I meet with the Chief Education Officer.

We met on April 20, 1990 for more than two hours and, in a letter to him of April 21, 1990 I said "it was most reassuring to me that you place such high priority on the importance of interpersonal skills in teaching''. I also referred him to the pertinent pages of Shackles of the Past'' and suggested he might want to contact Dr. Victoria Williams who had provided most of the information concerning research on teaching effectiveness on which my book was based. I also suggested that it would probably be helpful to compare training programmes provided by Dr. Williams with those of other consultants employed by the Department of Education.

On April 21, 1990, I also wrote to the Permanent Secretary of Education, thanked her for arranging the meeting with the Chief Education Officer, and expressed concern that the Department's one- and two-day workshops in interpersonal skills "do not allow time to confirm that the participants can demonstrate what they have acquired and can apply the skills in an academic setting''.

When I received no reply or contact, I wrote to the Premier, drew his attention to the sections of "Shackles of the Past'' that dealt with teacher effectiveness, and enclosed copies of my correspondence with the Ministry. I also indicated that it was my impression that I was not "held in particularly high regard by Dr. Robinson, the Permanent Secretary of Education; and this may account for the lack of response to what I have to say in my book.

However, I hope that somewhere along the line someone in authority will pay some attention to the fact that middle schools and comprehensive schools will almost certainly aggravate an already serious problem if we first don't make sure that our teachers are effective.'' I have yet to receive an acknowledgement of this letter.

I next requested a meeting with the Minister of Education and was cordially received by him early in January, 1991. On January 6, 1991, I wrote and thanked him for meeting with me and enclosed information about interpersonal skills rating scales that I had drawn to his attention.

Although the Minister said he would get back to me when he had consulted the appropriate authorities, I have yet to hear from him.

Along with my overtures to the Ministry of Education, I followed a similar procedure with the Amalgamated Bermuda Union of Teachers. Although the response was more sympathetic, the Union seemed more concerned with working conditions than teacher effectiveness. I fully supported the Union in this regard and appeared in its support as a witness in the ABUT Review Board, where I stressed verbally and later, in a letter to the chairman, that my support for improved working conditions required that equal attention be given to teacher performances. To date, I am aware of no meaningful involvement by the Union in teacher competence programmes that will assure improved performance.

Indeed, the Ministry and the Union seem to be allocating all their attention to preparing teachers for middle schools -- and this in spite of the serious questions that many educators have about such schools. Selling an idea seems to be the name of the game, but precious little, if any, attention is being given to the competence of the salesmen, that is, the teachers.

I then became involved with a small group of Bermudians who I hoped to convince to review my proposals and, if they decided they were worth pursuing with the Ministry, the ABUT, and other appropriate bodies or persons, to do so -- with or without my involvement. However, after a few minutes it became evident that those who attended were not prepared to confine themselves to such a limited agenda.

Then, early this year my inherited polycystic kidneys failed me. My life was saved by the King Edward's Dialysis Unit. However, it did force me to take stock of my situation and reach the conclusions I described at the beginning of this statement.

But not to digress and to summarise. I want to make it absolutely clear that I have insufficient information that would allow me to take a pro or con position concerning the present changes being for our education system.

However, I do regret Warwick Academy's decision to become private. I believe it will inevitably contribute to a public/private school system based on race and income.

Nor am I worried about the majority of children who, with the usual mix of effective and ineffective teachers will, without major harm, manage to survive whatever comes in their direction. I am aware of no evidence that suggests that they are not able to cope with 11-plus exams and insensitive teachers now, and I'm sure they will learn how to handle whatever the next education `ism' turns out to be.

But Bermuda also has it's Los Angeles back o' town of alienated (mainly black) young people who have not found a hospitable welcome in their homes and schools. Here and abroad, I have talked and worked with hundreds of such castaways. They form a woeful company of the hurt, angry, ignorant, and have little control over their destructive and usually self-defeating impulses. In my experience and supported by much research, they also are hard-put to recall any teacher who they felt really gave a damn about them.

I saw Buck Burrows before we hanged him. At first, he was unable to recall adults whom he remembered with some fondness. Then, with a little prompting, he said: "There was one little old lady with grey hair: Can't remember her name''.

I have no doubt that, if we would take off the blinkers and do some real fact-finding about our Bermudian casualties, we would find that we have a potentially dangerous significant minority of Bermudians who, like Buck Burrows, have not experienced adults as caring, understanding, and free from pretence -- all documented requirements of effective parents, teachers, and anyone else who has any significant contact with other human beings. But of all such persons, teachers are the last resort when home and other nurturing resources are deficient. Teachers are also the only ones where we can assure that they have the human relations skills so desperately needed by what we have come to call our underclass.

It's beyond my understanding that, if not for humane reasons, then for the sake of our future peace and survival as a place fit for humans, we are seemingly unable to see that Bermuda is too small to contain the disruption we will experience if circumstances arise that fuel the destructive forces of those among us who have long since learned they have nothing to loose. But, no, somehow we see drugs as priority problem Number One.

Anyone who knows anything about addicts knows that most share a common denominator of unsatisfactory human relations in their formative years. Such people were crippled long before they knew what 11-plus exams were all about and will not benefit from middle schools unless we guarantee that day-in and year-out they have teachers that in their later yeas they can recall with some admiration and affection.

And now, before hanging up the gloves, a little bare knuckle fighting and telling it like it really is before PR tries to convince us that a stink is really a scent.

I have here, in my book, and in Letters to the Editor already said that I feel we often unfairly blame our troubles on those we elect and the cost and incompetence of the civil service. In my book, I did suggest that my experience with Government had led me to conclude that some Ministers were badly served by their senior officers. However, the Ministry of Education was and remains the most glaring example of this. My almost twenty years of treading on eggshells and trying to open the bureaucratic, racially and religiously inbred doors and other impediments to cooperative endeavour were a constant and frustrating challenge. The only exception was the few years that Dr. Mansfield (Jim) Brock served as Permanent Secretary. Jim and I had our set-tos, but one never had the feeling that you needed a passport and visa to get access to him or to be informed that he reserved the familiarity of first names to those he considered friends.

When Jim was succeeded by the present Permanent Secretary, Dr. Marion Robinson, the drawbridge was immediately drawn. The tone of our relationship was set one morning when I addressed her as Marion when congratulating her on her appointment. Her reply was: "Mr. Critchley, I reserve my first name for my friends. I would appreciate it if you would call me Dr. Robinson.'' And to compound the incestuous problem, the Minister of Education was a student in the same school his Permanent Secretary was a teacher. At least, Government made sure that checks and balances were imposed on the Ministry of Health and Social Services by assuring that, except for one brief temporary period, the Ministers I served were selected from the ranks of those who were considerably to the right of Genghis Khan.

Now is the time for Government Information Services and black and white to rally around whatever they can scrape together by way of damage control. I have no question I will be shot down in racial, personal, or other flames.

But, I kid you not. Any fair-minded person who has tried to penetrate the fortress that is today's Ministry of Education will know I speak the truth. At its civil service top, the Ministry is a frightening example of an authoritarian and closed system and a denial of all that we know about the kind of human relations that are required for organisational effectiveness.

You don't change and often sabotage the system if you don't change the people who are hired to run it. And of course, a closed system in human affairs is a virtual guarantee of eventual failure, whether in business or education.

I know this and many of our politicians know it feel powerless to do anything about it for fear of it turning into a racial or union issue.

So much for education. Now for some closing comments about other challenges of unfinished social and economic business that I believe are long overdue for change.

Government, through the Minister of Health and Social Services, has verbally recognised the importance of the Child Development Project, the minister has nowhere near the financial resources available for the project to reach its full potential. A review of the original aims and objectives of the project will confirm that it falls far short of its original intention which was to assure that no child growing up in these Islands would be allowed to fall by the wayside from at least birth to school leaving age. For this to be accomplished, I estimate at least $1,500,000 would be required annually and the many stumbling blocks to collaborative working relationships with the Ministry of Education removed.

The $1,500,000 I refer to above would, in my opinion not have to be new money if Government would reconsider duplicating in Bermuda services that are available at less cost overseas. Immediate examples that come to mind are residential treatment centres. As this is being written, Government appears to have committed itself to such a centre for men and to have guaranteed premises and, if not now, I'm sure at a later date, financial support for a church-sponsored centre for females. At present, Government can pick from several overseas centres and I am aware of no evidence that supports the prevailing conviction that local is more effective than overseas treatment.

Certainly, by virtue of demand alone, we can expect that the per capita cost of anything worthy of the name treatment that we do locally will cost at least twice what we are presently paying for residential treatment in Quebec.

I also think Government should give second thoughts to its plans to develop a treatment programme for sex offenders in Bermuda. Many excellent such facilities exist in North America, particularly in Canada; and explorations with the Ontario Government have indicated a willingness to consider accepting Bermudian sex offenders for treatment.

Then there is the overdue necessity of really coming to grips with the inequalities of income distribution and the absence of programmes and services to assure that all have some reason to aspire to the good life.

For example, why should any unemployed Bermudian who is willing to but unable to find work be guaranteed by Government a job at a living wage in meaningful projects developed by Government or private enterprise? Or if an unemployed or under employed man lacks marketable skills, he should be assigned a case manager who assures he obtains them in programmes paid for by Government. During his or her training, he should be guaranteed sufficient income to encourage him to complete training and discourage him from deciding that drug pushing and stealing are preferable avenues to the good life.

I also wonder how Government can in the space of a year jump golf memberships on its public courses by more than $100. Golf has emerged as one of our few sports with significant involvement of black and white Bermudians from various income levels. As things now stand in Bermuda, increased expense will almost inevitably lead to further racial and economic separation, whether it be in sports or education in private schools.

Well, I've had my say. It merely remains to ask whether in our frenzied feeding at the trough of conspicuous consumption, we can somehow manage to mobilise at least a handful of Bermudians who will take seriously the implications of the fact that for far too many Bermudians, life is a mockery of what it could and should be.

In a recent letter to The Royal Gazette and in these pages, I've said I thought we should stop looking to and blaming our elected representatives for what ails us, although they are far from blameless and really seem to be out of touch with the basic unpleasant realities in a number of areas. Certainly, here and universally, politicians are held in low esteem. As unfair as it often is, I think this is a good thing because it throws the ball back where it should be -- that is in our own laps.

I'm convinced that what we most need at this time is small groups of concerned and committed citizens who focus their attention on specific areas of concern and don't try to take on more than one challenge at a time. They must become expert and knowledgeable about whatever occupies their attention so that when they seek whatever change they consider desirable they will know whereof they speak. Certainly, they must not allow themselves to be blinded by enthusiasm or ideology, as has happened to some of our citizen enterprises. Above all their commitment must be to human well-being -- especially to those whose wells have run dry or who never had equal access in the first place.

What catastrophe will it take for us to realise that, if we don't somehow rise above party and pocket politics, the bell that has long since tolled for our wayside brethren will toll for us and ours? Who knows? Perhaps we have been dealt a losing hand that we must play. Is that the real story of mankind? If so, what a tragedy and what a loss for this potential wonderland and example to all nations of a realm fit for human habitation.

RETIRING -- Mr. David Critchley. Dr. Marion Robinson. The Hon. Gerald Simons.