BEFORE I get to the main topic of this week's Commentary, I'd like to briefly address Bermuda's continuing — and worsening — traffic woes. Last Friday, March 10, was a bad day on Bermuda's roads because of the horrific traffic accident that occurred on North Shore and Radnor Road (which, fortunately, did not result in any loss of life). Aside from those injured in the accident hundreds of people trying to make it home were caught up in traffic jams for hours as emergency services personnel attended the scene of a catastrophic crash involving three trucks and a bike.

The epic delay I experienced brought home to me once again some of the unhappy realities faced by drivers using Bermuda's roads — realities based around the fact so many drivers now subscribe to a"Do As You Please" attitude and couldn't care less about the inconvenience (and, in some cases, accidents) they cause for other road users.

Coincidentally, I recently received a new assignment from the Post Office, one I thought might actually lower the frustrations I have so long experienced while on the road. I am now working at a new site, the mail processing centre near the airport.

It's a whole new experience for me both in terms of the job I am now doing for the Post Office and because of the fact that for the first time in my working life I am now based outside the City of Hamilton and have thus escaped the daily grind of driving into the city during morning rush hour.

Once I get beyond the Paget traffic lights it is smooth sailing (or driving) as, for the most part, I am driving against the morning traffic coming from the east rather than having to drive with the flow of traffic.

But have I really escaped the frustration and Bermuda's traffic woes?

I thought so until I faced the infamous "third lane" coming out of the East End on the Causeway where there is nowhere to go if you find yourself with someone barrelling towards you straight down the middle of the yellow line.

Last Friday morning I had a scare when, just minutes away from the job, this woman bike rider jumped out right in front of me — some 30 to 40 yards away — and headed straight towards me.

I was too stunned to think but the self-preservation instinct took over (and thank God it did). If I had not jammed on the brakes I am sure the result would have been appalling — the beginning of Bermuda's day of traffic woes with me and this lady smack-dab at the centre of things.

As I mentioned at the outset, like hundreds of other Bermudian drivers I was caught up in the traffic delays resulting from the Friday afternoon crash. But was it over for me? Not on your life.AFTER leaving work, I was heading into the city to pick up my daughter. Once I finally got her (and finished apologising for being so late) I was taking her home. But we ended up being delayed until almost six in the evening as a result of yet another traffic accident — one that occurred outside the Ice Queen in Paget. Dr. Brown, is there any chance of a fast ferry stopping at the airport? I have just about had it trying to drive on Bermuda's roads.

Now onto the topic I really want to address this week — the critical comments made about Bermuda's public school system by Progressive Labour Party backbencher Renée Webb.

Now if Ms Webb had addressed her remarks at Government's administration of the schools and the often troubling policies crafted by the Ministry of Education, then perhaps I might not feel compelled to mount a defence.

But Ms Webb blamed Bermuda's public school teachers solely for the shortcomings of Bermuda's public school system — and that is another matter entirely.

Ms Webb is one of the Government's Parliamentarians I have a lot of respect for and have said so a number of times.

However, on this occasion I cannot say I agree with her criticisms of Bermuda's public school teachers. I think it's inaccurate and unhelpful to place the blame on them for the very obvious failures in the system.

Some good might come out of this, though. Perhaps her chastisement of the public school system will finally open the door to a wide-ranging and long overdue community debate about Bermuda's education system.

There are success stories as well as conspicuous failures in Bermuda's public education system. In fact I have long been on record as suggesting that the institutional problems in the public school system seem to begin manifesting themselves at the middle school (and up) level. The elementary system seems to be getting it right.

I have always looked at the education of our young people as resting on a triad consisting of the Government, whose responsibility it is to provide the infrastructure so that education can take place, the teachers, whose responsibility is to initiate and prepare their children for education and provide a constant back-up, and the parent, whose function is the reinforcement of the educational process.

I would not want to blame parents entirely for the very obvious educational shortcomings and failures of the current generation. Clearly, many parents take their role in their children's education very seriously. However, I believe we as a country must take an honest look at the situation and admit that in some respects, there have been some serious failings — there are, in fact, parents who have dropped the ball when it comes to their children's studies.

In many homes these days children will never see their parents reading a book or even a newspaper. In fact, you might not even find books in some homes. But you will always find a television (in many cases more than one television), DVDs and computers that are employed as entertainment centres and online shopping malls.

My generation were fortunate to come of age when there were far fewer distractions in Bermuda. Reading, in most cases, was the only entertainment we had — this and the radio which in those days carried many serialised stories.

I developed my love for reading at home rather than school; my teachers only reinforced a habit I had already developed. I still remember the first books I read for pleasure, given to me by my mother. They helped awaken in me a realisation about the critically important role that reading plays in educating and shaping a young mind, a view I still subscribe to.

I applied the same techniques used by my mother when it came to my own children. I always gave them books at Christmastime and birthdays rather than toys. My oldest daughter once complained to me about this but guess what?

When she attended the Bermuda College, she could read and comprehend a 600-page book with no problem while some of her classmates were having real problems in this area. Imagine that. College students having difficulty with an educational fundamental like reading.ANOTHER thing I used to do is take out subscriptions to the National Geographic's children's magazine, now called Kids. And guess what? The same daughter who once complained that I gave her too many books insisted that I keep renewing her subscription right up to the time she graduated from high school.I continue to provide her younger sister with a subscription. And I have given subscriptions as gifts to the children and grandchildren of some of the people I work with. The money involved is relatively little but the information the children glean from the magazine is enormous.

Some readers think because of the topics I write about that I have been out of the country for higher education but that is not so. I was educated entirely in Bermuda but reading has allowed me to see and understand the world.

I am, in fact, a tribute to the dedicated Bermudian teachers who taught me in Bermuda's public school. I have no doubt that the same dedication exists in many of the teachers working in the school system today.

But we all have a role to play in the education of our young people. It is for us to identify what that role is. And it may be something as simple as giving a young child a subscription to a children's magazine to help them develop a love for reading — reading being the foundation that all subsequent education is built upon.