Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours. – Les Brown
Every year I am given the opportunity to address the ceremonies at primary schools across the country. This year I shared with the students at St Jude’s Primary, where I was a student over 50 years ago.
I travelled to the Horatio Cooke Auditorium where I addressed the graduating class of 2010 of Welches Primary School, which is located in the Redmans Village area. On Tuesday I journey to the Milton Lynch Primary in Water Street, Christ Church.
I always find graduation themes fascinating. At St Jude’s Primary the focus was Believe And You Will Succeed. The folk at Welches Primary School used Never Give Up On Your Dream, while the boys’ school in Water Street identified Taking Responsibity For Your Actions as its own.
At St Jude’s I shared a few things that students must believe, if indeed they will achieve.
First they were told to believe in themselves and in their ability to achieve. They were advised that if they are really going to reach the highest level of which they are capable, they must believe in their ability to do it.
My Alma mater was reminded that many people fail not because they do not have the ability, but because they do not believe in their own ability to achieve.
The second thing they were told that was critical to achieving was a plan: a road map; a path to follow. They were told that, if like John Maxwell they believe they “ . . . can get there from here”, then they must have a map that will guide where they go and what they actually do to get there from here.
They were reminded that unless they had a plan, the they were very likely to wander and meander and find themselves going all over the place. The St Jude’s folk were told that if they didn’t know where they were going, any road would get them there.
As a proud product of St Jude’s Primary, I challenged the graduating class to take inspiration from the many past students who were making a sterling contribution in many areas of endeavour across Barbados, in the region and even internationally. Among the many outstanding students mentioned as models to follow were the late Ermine “Mother Theresa” Holmes who was honoured for service to the community, as well as for her contribution to education.
World draughts player Ronald “Suki” King’s success as the World Go-As-You-Please champion served as inspiration for students from the rural primary school. It was indeed a joy to return to St Jude’s. Congratulations to the principal, staff and students for their success.
On June 18, the ceremony for the 2010 graduating class at Welches Primary was held under another powerful theme: Never Give Up On Your Dream. The small class of 20 students was introduced to some important truths about dreams and dreaming.
They were told that a “man’s dreams are an index to his greatness” and that “our dreams are who we are” – Barbara Sher. The students of this small rural primary school were told that as Woodrow Wilson said “all the big men in the world are dreamers”.
They were challenged not to waste their time on small dreams and advised as did Donald Trump that “if you are going to be thinking/dreaming, you may as well dream big”. Walt Disney’s advice was used to remind the graduands that “if you can’t dream it, you can’t do it” and that “dreams are real as long as they last”.
Langston Hughes’ counsel to “hold fast to your dreams” was advanced. Emma Goldman’s warning that “when we can’t dream any longer, we die” and Malcolm Forbes notion that “when we cease to dream, we cease to live” were used as inspiration for the graduands whom we all we urged “never to give up on their dreams”. Each of the graduands at Welches Primary received a copy of Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech.
Over at St Gabriel’s, Knowledge Is The Key To Success was the focus, and the students at Society Primary in St John journeyed to the Lodge School with their theme Make It Happen. The lads at Milton Lynch Primary in Water Street are in for a graduation cocktail treat when their theme Taking Responsibility For Your Actions comes into focus on Tuesday.
Other useful themes that come to mind are A Whole New World, Choices Determine Your Destiny and Reaching The Unreachable.
These kinds of theme underscore the fact that education is not limited to academics; that the school has a more holistic role and function, which are to inculcate a sense of values and provide students with a moral compass with which they can make wise choices in their lives.
• Matthew D. Farley is an educator, secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum On Education and a social commentator.
