Students of Christ Church Foundation have been urged to accept opportunities when they arise.
Addressing the school’s speech day yesterday, past student Chief Justice Marston Gibson said youth today gave up too easily when things did not turn out as planned.
“You cannot give up when circumstances change,” he said. “People live in the Sahara Desert and the North Pole . . . . We can adapt.”
Using himself as an example, Gibson said he had a dream of becoming a doctor when he entered Boys Foundation School 47 years ago. He said law entered the picture somewhere along the line, but he still had that strong leaning towards the medical profession.
Those thoughts were shattered when he was unable to take the qualifying examination which would have allowed him to pursue science.
The Chief Justice said his decision was solidified after an encounter with Sir Henry Forde in 1971, during which he quizzed the lawyer about law and on whose shoulders he was standing.
The Rhodes Scholar told the prize winners success was not accidental and that they should not allow their lives to be one of drift.
“You have to plan, and you have to dream,” he said.
He promised to help build the Foundation tradition, and in encouraging students to be the best they could be, he urged them to return to their alma mater once they had achieved and “infuse” their knowledge into the youngsters.
The Chief Justice spoke to the youngsters on the importance of building traditions and the need to be individuals. He discouraged them from being led by people who believed life was a quick fix.
He also advised them to pursue their studies if their parents were prepared to pay rather than get caught up in work and the issues of life.
He commended all the students who excelled especially those who gained eight and nine CXC?passes with several Grade Ones. Gibson said he received the top prize in 1970 for five certificates, which included one Grade One.
Based on those achievements, Gibson urged students to reach for the stars and gave them a little statement to recite – “I can be standing where he is, doing what he is doing.”
“There is nothing stopping you,” he said, adding that even though he did not quite know what it was, he wanted and got a Bachelor in Civil Law degree in emulation of the then principal Lee Harford Skeete.
Principal Robert Cumberbatch said the school had achieved the goals it set for last year of an overall pass rate of 80 per cent in CXC passes and increasing the number of Grade Ones and two passes. He said there was a record high number of passes in English language and literature, with a 100 per cent in the former, electronic document preparation and management and information technology.
There was a 100 per cent pass rate in home economics for the eighth straight year.
In addition to the growth in all the other areas, Cumberbatch said there were “significant” improvements in passes in both French and Spanish.
“It was stated that it costs Government approximately $5 000 to educate a student. I believe that this was money well spent in the case of these students, some of [whom] will be gracing the stage a little later on,” Cumberbatch said.
