IT IS NOT UNUSUAL to hear music from the likes of Jay Z, Buju and Justin Bieber in his classes.
He allows eating in class too, as long as it is popcorn and the movie of the hour is a dense piece of Shakespeare or some other hard-to-grasp piece.
But break the rules and there is a slight departure from the aforementioned side of Stephen Scott, whose thrust is to make learning fun and to keep students engaged. He is a strict disciplinarian whose methods of punishment and trusty cane are emblazoned on the brains of children.
The recently appointed deputy principal of Parkinson Memorial Secondary School is an English teacher his former students at his alma mater Harrison College, where he taught for 12 years, seem to love. It is a subject he hated until he encountered a Christopher Chung Wee in fourth form.
“He brought English to life for me. He made it practical,” Scott recalled with his signature laugh.
Two years later literatures in English was his first choice when he entered sixth form and it was also his major at university. He opted for English after being told that he could not major in education because he did not have the required two years as a teacher. All his electives were in education.
He applied to every secondary school after graduation in 1991 and when the responses came, Scott interviewed at St George Secondary, Codrington High and Harrison College.
Scott went off into a quiet spot to ponder his choices and conversations with a few close friends sealed his decision to go to St George Secondary.
“I felt I wanted to make an impact on the students there. I thought Harrison College is going to be okay. And, too, the scouting was going to play a major role in the school,” Scott said.
He spent eight years at St George Secondary, and it was there where he incorporated some of Chung Wee’s methods. Scott’s go-to is music.
“That’s my thing, to show the children that English was a part of life; it’s connected to life,” he said.
He taught letter writing by developing a pen-pal programme with students from another school, and there is one story that is still very vivid in his mind.
“The impact of that for me was a little guy whose dad was in jail, and he hadn’t heard him for a long time. He said ‘Sir, can I write to my dad?’ I said ‘sure’ and he wrote. He came back a couple weeks later and said ‘Sir, you know my dad wrote me back?’ ” Scott related.
That response triggered something in him, and he continued to employ practical methods in all his classes at Harrison College and now at Parkinson Memorial Secondary, even though he does not teach English there.
“So then, whatever I taught I tried to make some sort of life connection for them. So that’s why I continued teaching the poetry through the songs . . . . I always want students to come to class. ‘Cause I remember being a student and wanting to go to Mr Chung Wee’s class. And that is what I always wanted to have my students feel [like] they always want to be there and I think all teachers should strive for that, always do something exciting that your students want to know ‘what’s happening next week’ or ‘what’s going to happen tomorrow,” the musical director at the River Road New Testament Church said.
Scott believes in using given situations as a “teaching moment”, rather than berating students.
“We would have a sit-down and I would talk, rather than punishment per se,” he said, adding that it was one of the things he loved about the Positive Behaviour Management Programme.
He said the transition to Parkinson from Harrison College has gone fairly well. One of the things is that the 26 rules at Parkinson are found in the 50 at Harrison College.
His approach to discipline is simple; break the rules and there is a consequence.
“Sometimes I would walk with my cane for effect. I think I flogged maybe four students in the eight years that I was senior teacher. Sometimes I would walk down the corridor with the cane, just at the end of lunch to speak to my year group. Everybody would be like ‘somebody is going to get it today’, but nobody did,” he said, adding that he went through an evolution before leaving Harrison College and turned to alternative forms of punishment.
He is known for walking with rubber bands for socks that would not stay up, shoe polish, combs for unkempt hair, nail polish remover and the like, which would bring students to a point where they are conforming to the rules.
Parkinson attracts a different kind of child and he has learnt how to modify his approaches to achieve similar results. Scott has just been in The Pine for two terms and already teachers send students to their “father” for disciplinary and other reasons.
He said he has already told the students that his aim is to make them positive young women and young gentlemen.
“I refer to them as ‘Sir’ and ‘Ma’am’, purposely. Because I want them to get into that mode of ‘Oh yes I should be respected. I should be at this level and therefore I need to work at achieving that’ . . . sometimes you can be harsh or you can be soft and sometimes the soft approach makes a great impact. That’s what I’ve been trying at Parkinson,” he said.
Deputy principal is just another notch to take the 41-year-old to Chief Education Officer, which he has envisaged since age 18. He became senior teacher at age 31, and was the youngest in that role at the time. He said he has been preparing for the roles by immersing himself in various leadership roles within the schools.
“I was house master, student council director, prefects’ master. I served in all those capacities. Any committees that I could serve on, I did. And that is what I used as my experience when I went to my interview, and I believe that is what partially worked,” he said.
While he had never acted as deputy principal he would have worked closely with the principals and deputies.
He already has a clear idea of what he would want his legacy to be when he has served as chief and retired from the profession.
“I really want to impact others in terms of their vocation, their calling. So I see my role now as to impact other teachers . . . . To be positive in their roles, whatever that may be. Don’t just do it as a job, but to be positive and do it to the best of their abilities. That’s what I would want persons to say I did,” he said.
He was recently ordained a clergyman in the New Testament Church, and continues to thank God for what He has done. Scott shares his experience and talents with others, whether it is in the school or church setting.
“For me, God is my all in all. He undergirds everything. I believe more in social evangelism. I think churches should impact their communities, so wherever that church is, impact the community for good find what their needs are, and when you do that and you impact the community then you’re more open to the gospel message,” he said.
