STILL WILLING TO TEACH AT 87

Veronica Eloise Gordon still willing to teach at 87

Veteran educator chronicles a journey of over 45 years in the classroom

The retired teacher, who received a long service award for continuous contribution in teaching on Heroes’ Day last October, said that her venture into the teaching profession almost 50 years ago was not one that was planned. Initially, Gordon had her mind on becoming a nurse, but as it turned out, that was not what fate had in store for her.

According to Gordon, who was born in 1928, her undertaking of the profession of teaching unknowingly started from an early age as she always had a great interest in reading.

“My grandmother whom I grew up with up to the age of six was a person who was always reading, mostly her Bible. Then I used to imitate her — as soon and as she put the Bible down I would go pick it up, find what she was reading (because she would read aloud for me to hear), so I would pick it up and look for the passage, not that I could read it, but I could memorise it,” she said.

The young Gordon would also take an interest in trying to read the weekly newspaper that came to the shops and homes in her community and would later, at the age of seven, start attending the Mount Rosser Elementary School.

“I was always picking up things and trying to read even when I can’t read what they were. I ask some big person to tell me what the word is. Well from that I continued at school, then doing what was called Jamaica Local Examination, there was also what was known as City and Guilds but we in the country never took City and Guilds, children who took that exam would come into Kingston where they would go to private school,” the elderly woman recounted.

However, as she couldn’t afford private school she stayed in the ‘country’,where she took on the role of pupil teacher which enabled her to get free lessons in order to sit the Jamaica Local Examination.

“As a pupil teacher, I had to take PE (physical education) and I would take the children out to the smoothest part of the yard to do PE, which was hand stretching and jumping up and spinning around in order to give them exercise. I would also help the teacher in all the subjects, especially in english and bible knowledge, then called Scripture, so at the age of 15, I was doing all of that,” a proud Gordon recalled.

She later successfully sat the third Jamaica Local Examination in 1948 at the age of 20 and, stating that she was still “very much interested in reading at the time”, Gordon explained that one could sign up with a private school in Kingston and become a correspondent.

“The principal of that school was Aretus Cunningham and I didn’t know the man but someone recommended that I could sign up with him so I did the correspondence course, took the exam in mathematics, english and religious education and I was successful, still working at the school and about that time, that was 1950, Mico College opened up a day class for probation teachers which I was one of them now,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Under the arrangement of attending day classes for three months and then teaching at the school for the following three months, Gordon stated that she would later successfully take the exam at Mico around 1954, which would rank her as a grade three elementary teacher.

She was still teaching at Mount Rosser, but even though she was graded, the school could not employ another teacher and so she started looking elsewhere for employment.

“There was a position in Mount Herman in Portland and I applied and I was accepted so I went to Portland to work. While there, Moneague Teacher’s College opened, so wanting to make myself (more) qualified I made an application,” she said.

Unfortunately, Gordon wasn’t accepted that year so she continued to pursue correspondence courses and worked at the Portland-based school until 1959.

“I taught all the subjects while I was there that you can think of, including handy-work, we used to plait straw and teach the children to sew and my main teaching subjects would have been english, mathematics and religious education ,” the teaching enthusiast explained.

In 1960, the then 32-year-old Gordon reapplied for Moneague Teacher’s College and was successful. However, Gordon’s acceptance came at a time when she had just been offered a permanent job at Mckie Elementary School.

“I didn’t turn down the position, I made requests of the education ministry which said I could go to Moneague, so I went to Moneague College for a year and specialised in PE, english and mathematics. But you still had to do all the subjects — I did basketry and needlework and my special subject at the time in which I did my thesis, was music and at the end I was successful and was graded a grade one primary school teacher,” the 87-year-old reminisced.

She said by that time the ministry had changed the name from elementary school to primary school and after leaving Moneague, she worked first at Mckie in Clarendon.

“When I got the job at Mckie, it was small, just 90 children in the school and most of them were in the lower school and so the upper school consisted of 38 and I worked with those children. Then, Common Entrance Examination was the thing but we didn’t send any children to Common Entrance that year,” Gordon stated.

But this was not a permanent job as there was no suitable accommodation for the teacher who by then had three children.

“So I went around to Maxfield Park Primary and I was put in the upper school but upper school for this was children from six and a half to 12 (years old). So I was in the preparation for Common Entrance now but my group didn’t go for Common Entrance. It was in preparation for the next grade and through all my stay at Maxfield that I worked with the upper school,” the seasoned educator highlighted.

But Gordon’s educational pursuits were not over and so she applied to the University of the West Indies to pursue extramural studies. She got accepted and completed a two-year course in general psychology.

“After finishing the extramural I was still not satisfied that I had total qualification and felt that I wanted to do more than going to school and teaching a group of children, so I thought I would set up a private school for small children and so I applied to CAST (now UTECH) and did what was then called childcare and development,” she said.

Although the 49-year-old Gordon successfully completed the one-year course, she didn’t pursue her dream of starting a school, as the other two persons whom she wanted to help her were not willing and so she gave up the idea.

“I also took onto to myself counselling because I belonged to the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and they held counselling sessions and I applied and got training there, so I used it in the school,” Gordon stated.

She continued to work at Maxfield Park Primary, being later appointed as a senior teacher, and was also appointed as acting vice-principal during her 31-year tenure at the primary school.

She humbly accredited her senior teacher promotion to the progress she made with not only the children but the special classes she held for adults in the community.

“I held a special class for people in the community who wanted extra training, the headmaster would set up the programme and I would be the after-school teacher. We went on shift system and in the year when we went on shift system, when the children who are on afternoon shift came to school say 10 o’clock, I would try to be there to settle them and keep them from running all over,” the primary school teacher stated.

She added that this task was her own way of helping around the school, while at the same time organising drama and music activities.

“I was interested in music so I set up a choir along with the other teachers. So I would say I was always trying to acquire more training and at the same time passing on what I learned and there were teachers there who were not trained in college and since I knew I came through that line and I would want some help, I would actually give whatever help I could,” Gordon told the Sunday Observer.

Gordon would continue to help those who needed it even after she officially retired after 40 years in the formal school system in 1989, as she continued unrelentingly and patiently teaching both adults and children alike.

“Well God must have given me a little special skill because children and even adults who came within the school area who couldn’t read or was slow in learning, I could take them, coax them, teach them and find that they pick up and learn, so that was one of my things. I kept a class with the early children and after school with children and sometimes adults to help them to learn,” the educator stated.

This would lead her to sign up with the education ministry to continue working as an assistant teacher, where for the next five years she worked to help children who needed it.

“I signed up every year, it should have been six years altogether but then my mother became shaky and so I discontinued and stayed home with her. I started a little home education system with children in community who needed help, mostly from our church circle and those who came were successful in the Common Entrance and went on to high school,” Gordon said.

She would run this for three years and although she never had more than six persons at any one time in the class, her pupils were all successful in their studies.

Although she had such a prolific and multi- varied career in education, this did not mean her family was short changed as the educator made sure her husband and her children especially were set on the path to success.

“My husband was in Kingston so I had to travel all the way on weekends but he was a person who needed to upgrade his education so most times we were studying together and that worked out very well,” Gordon said of her late husband.

“Maybe I was fortunate in that my mother came to live with me at an early stage. When I left for Portland she kept my first two sons and then eventually when we got our home in Kingston she came to live with us there,” the quick-witted teacher continued.

She said that this was fortunate as while at first it was not the best arrangement, it later turned out to be, as she had her mother for support.

Of her children, Gordon said that the last three attended school with her, while the first three went to a private school because at the time she was in rural Jamaica and so had to place them in a private school.

“They were, I would have to say, successful and achieved their professions through training. The eldest was a teacher, he just retired last year (2014); my second son is a medical doctor abroad. My daughter Marilyn is a teacher, another son is an engineer, my other daughter is a lawyer and my last boy is a land surveyor,” Gordon said of her children’s accomplishments.

“So although I had been skipping here and there, we had school for them, and we would sit with them at the table to a certain time in the night from they were very young to teach and guide them and thanks be to God they took training and achieved much,” she stated.

When asked what advice she would give to teachers, the seasoned educator said without hesitation that the first thing teachers should note is that they should not think they are entering a profession where they are going to sit back and have a book reading while the children are running around.

“It’s not that, you have to go to teach that the children learn, and don’t think yuh going there to get a lot of money. It isn’t there. Teaching doesn’t give yuh wealth of money, teaching give yuh pocket money but yuh have to know how to use it to make it work for you,” she advised.

She added that teachers needed to remember that they are not alone and if they have the knowledge in other subject areas, assistance can be given to those teachers who need it for problematic subjects such as mathematics.

“At the same time, I would say if you’re not qualified to work, go get qualified because just working for the pay is not enough, you have to leave a mark on your students and let the students go out the road and say ‘I’m in Miss class and I like Miss class’,” Gordon said.

She explained that this demonstrated that children were learning and as a teacher one should create that impression so that their students will always remember them.

“My students remember me sometimes and when they call to me, I feel a little cute when they say ‘Is miss teach me.’ They don’t remember my name enu; but they say ‘Is miss teach me enu, that is why I am how I am’ and when they say that I feel very good,” the teaching veteran exclaimed.

But the stalwart maintained that her journey was not an easy road.

“Take it as I say, it wasn’t easy, no it wasn’t easy. When I started driving a car, a little (Ford) Escort car and yuh see me pack up that carton, and every Monday yuh have to start teaching the same subject repeatedly because children forget, so try to create an impression where they can teach you too,” she stated.

Despite being 87, Gordon said she has not cut off teaching, even though she is not as active as she would like to be. If someone comes who needs help she will willingly aid them.

But she was quick to point out that it was not for “right now” as she is still missing her husband who died earlier in May last year.

However, despite the many years of success and innumerable contributions she has made to the lives of her students, the educator remains humble about her numerous achievements, especially her most recent one — being bestowed with a long-service award for her continued contributions in the teaching profession for over 45 years at the National Honours and Awards Ceremony last October.

“To say I have done this, someone who has known of my efforts to help other people, they are the people who may have passed on the information. I didn’t do it by my strength and might, I did it because I think God gave me an appointment,” she said.