It may seem like it but it is not the end of the road . . . it is just the end of a season, not only will you survive but you will thrive. – author unknown
On February 28, the board of management, principal Beverley Bancroft and the staff of the Graydon Sealy Secondary School staged a retirement function in my honour. It exceeded my wildest imagination.
I remain eternally thankful to Mrs Denise Charles, Mrs Melissa Belle, Mrs Arlyn Linton-Jones, Miss Cassandra Edgehill and Captain Lincoln Springer who constituted the planning committee and who with input from other staff through interviews and tributes walked me through the four decades of career with accuracy, precision and an overwhelming creativity that has been indelibly etched in my memory.
I chuckle when I say that I took an entire year to retire. This is not to be taken lightly. For 40 years education came through my nostrils and my pores. I breathed it, I agonised over it, I challenged it to a higher standard. For 40 years I gave school and education in Barbados my best shot. Virtually every day, I gave of my sweat, my blood and my tears as I knew no other way. When you have become attached to a career, you could suffer from withdrawal symptoms if you fail to prepare yourself for your final exit.
But there was a sense in which the evening was not really about me. For every principal knows that without a willing and supportive staff, no school can be singlehandedly run by him or her. The reality is that dedicated teachers and heads of department and year heads are the hub of effective management in our schools. Without them schools fail miserably and fall dangerously short of their mandate.
For this reason I give accolades to every member of staff who came under my leadership and influence during the 2003-2014 period and I celebrate the legacy which I inherited from the distinguished principals who came before me. Dwayne Smith, Hon Michael Lashley, Hon. Christopher Sinkler, Magistrates Ian Weekes and Douglas Fredericks and thousands of other Garrisonians and Graydonians must all continue to carry the flag which symbolises resilience, excellence and the promotion of “all aspects of their growth”.
It was interesting to sit and to hear Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Ronald Jones admit to a number of truths. I never intended to get his “head hot.” I was too busy getting the job done and as such I did not even know he “had his eye on me.” I never felt that I was under any “watch.”
Yes, I was called in to the Ministry after suspending 265 students for uniform and dress code breaches but I took the opportunity to demonstrate “the measure” of my commitment to “enforce the codes of conduct” for the institution which I had the honour to manage. I took pride in reminding my parliamentary representative that “it was my school.” Not in the sense that I possessed or owned it but that it consumed me day in day out, I came to love it as if it were a person. So, without any apology, it was my school, just as St Mary’s Primary was from 1996-2003. I had to pinch myself, when the minister, my professional colleague and friend said: “There were times when I asked for more Matthew Farleys in the education system.”
As I leave the hallowed columns of my professional career and look back down the corridors of time with gratitude and thanksgiving, I leave a few nuggets of advice. For teachers, in spite of the challenges and changes, social and pedagogical, commit yourself to your duty and your charges who cannot be blamed for what is happening around them. To principals, take control of your school. Spineless and “jelly-belly” leaders are easily forgotten but fearless and unapologetic principals are impossible to forget. To Minster Jones, in spite of the views of the “Rocks” and “Broomes” among us, leave corporal punishment alone and allow boards of management to chose our school leaders. Lastly, Sir, believe Professor Emeritus Earle Newton when he said: “The Common Entrance Examination is a sacred cow that should have long been pastured and slaughtered.”
So long! Farewell!
• Matthew Farley is a retired secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum on Education and a social commentator. Email principal208@gmail.com.
