Latest update May 7th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 29, 2017 News
“Educators do not retire; they are works in progress and agents of change…” – Gordon Wayne French
By Sharmain Grainger
“The work of a teacher is a work of love, it can’t be anything else.”
These were the words of Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo when he addressed the Ministry of
Education’s 2017 National Awards Ceremony on Friday at the National Cultural Centre.
His words can surely resonate with many within our society who have for years dedicated their lives to educating those within their charge.
But for Gordon Wayne French, being a teacher is more than just a work of love, it is in fact a way of life.
“I can only be a teacher, it is all I know to do,” said French as a grin formed on his face.
He is however convinced that he became involved in this noble portfolio merely by coincidence.
French grew up in a working class family where his father, George French, was a mason and his mother, Claudia French, was a homemaker. He was convinced that there was no way he could’ve followed in his father’s footsteps — exerting a great deal of energy to get the task at hand done.
He moreover decided that he wanted to do something that he presumed then to be “easy work”.
Several decades later and he is still fully engrossed in the profession, despite limited compensation and the feeling of being overworked, at times, from helping his students to learn and become outstanding human beings.
Gordon French has, over the years, helped to produce aplenty of these. Many of his students have become legal luminaries, medical professionals in various fields and business executives. He attempted to name a few, but even the few he recollected were far too many to be listed in this article. But you know yourselves!
TENSION
While many people know French or ‘Sir’ French from their various experiences with
him as their teacher, they may not be fully aware of his humble beginnings, which was sometimes marred by upheavals that were frightening even for adults, much less a young boy.
Born on May 11, 1950, French was the third of eight children [two boys and six girls] born to his parents. He recalled that while the relatively large French clan resided at Hadfield Street, Georgetown when he was born, by the time he was three years old, his father decided to move the family to Sparendaam on the East Coast of Demerara.
“I think life in Georgetown became too difficult for them,” French reminisced.
Back in those days, he recalled, there was very noticeable racial tension. But the dilemma did not dissipate even with that tactical move. In fact, French recalled how his parents were at one time instrumental in rescuing an Indian family from certain death.
But this did not mean that French did not get to live the life that a young boy should. He remembered how he and his brother would oftentimes escape to the backdams of Sparendaam to swim in the canal there or just get their hands on some juicy cane. Bush cooks, cricket and other boyish activities always gave them an exciting perspective to life.
“We were outdoors-oriented, that was the way of life…we didn’t have gadgets, but we enjoyed what we did,” French reflected.
EDUCATION
French recalled attending St. John’s RC Primary, a Catholic school that was located
right in Sparendaam. However, by the age of 14, his parents were ready to up and leave yet another home that they had grown accustomed to. The family moved further east to Buxton, which was in fact where his mother was raised.
It was there that he commenced his secondary education studies, at the Buxton High School. Reflecting on his secondary school days French quipped, “I think the school was created because of the tension in the country during the 60s…because it was a school for black students. There were students from Buxton, Friendship, Bachelor’s Adventure, Golden Grove, Victoria and so on.”
It was clear that racial segregation was still a real issue. Not delving into too many details, French encapsulated his memories of back then by stating, “Those times were very horrifying; it was a very terrifying period in Guyana.”
But he was learning about life and people, and had concluded in his mind that “this wasn’t a good way for people to be living – like cats and dogs, because of skin colour or racial orientation.”
He, however, learnt to accept the security of the Buxton environment and in the company of his brother and friends, would sometimes ride bicycles or mount wooden scooters in the quest to explore the village.
“Life was simple and pleasant in Buxton and that made it easy for me to become a Buxtonian culturally; you can’t take that out of me period…I am proud of the village, because it gave me insight on many things that helped to make me the man I am today,” French related.
Although he attended the Buxton Secondary School, he was also able to benefit from lessons from a teacher at another school called County High, also in Buxton. The teacher there, Brother Eusi Kwayana, would turn out to be one the greatest influences in French’s life.
“He is just a tremendous individual! I have never seen an educator as brilliant as he. I admired him for his brilliance…he was so exceptional. He knew so many things, especially about black history and culture,” French recounted.
As a result, French developed a keen interest in history. He also gravitated to learning Spanish, like a number of other youths in the village. In fact, he recalled that Buxtonians were of such an ilk that “whatever they put their minds to, they were able to accomplish it…we had young men who were speaking Spanish rapidly and I wanted to be like that too.” He was determined to comfortably fit into such a society, and he did.
TEACHING
But there came a time when the growing young man wanted to spread his wings beyond
the confines of Buxton. Since he had embraced the Seventh Day Adventist way of life and decided that he wanted to become a teacher to make a living, he accepted the challenge to teach at the Tacuba Seventh Days Adventist School, a primary and secondary school all the way in Canje Creek, Berbice.
With his O’Level passes he was off to Berbice, essentially leaving his siblings and parents behind to experience independence.
His teaching forte all started in 1970. He was tasked with delivering his first lessons to Prep A and Prep B pupils, and although it was a major task, he succeeded in making them literate and numerate at that very young age.
“I don’t know how I did it, but I helped those kids to read and write and to have their first initiation in numeracy. I was untrained and these were really small children, but the classes were small and I was able to work well with them,” he fondly recalled.
He would remain in that teaching arrangement for two years, after which he left for Training College in Kingston, Georgetown. Training commenced in 1972, and by 1974 he’d graduated a trained teacher, ready to take on the next available teaching task.
What he didn’t expect, though, was to be posted by the Government to the Amerindian locale of St Ignatius, all the way in the Rupununi. He had to adhere, and before long was busy educating students, from Forms One through Five, in the subject areas of Economics and Literature.
So desirous was he to see his students succeed, that French even availed himself to teach them extra lessons. In fact, he recalled once swimming across a river just to facilitate such a session.
But it wasn’t always about teaching for French, since he found time enough to become a football enthusiast and even became quite athletic too. To this day, he holds the over-40 60-metre Guyana Teachers’ Union record.
FAMILY
After teaching for about seven years in the Rupununi, French was allowed to return to Buxton and shortly after he took up a teaching post at the Friendship Secondary School. It was while teaching there that he opted to further his studies at the University of Guyana, majoring in History and Spanish.
But by this time French was no longer a loner since he had married the love of his life, Cheryl Austin, a fellow Buxtonian and Seventh Days Adventist believer. Their union produced three boys – Gordon, Sherdon and Simba.
Affectionately reminiscing on the life he was able to make with his wife, French recalled that she had in fact attended the same high school with him, but they never had any reason to communicate then. It was only after he joined the Seventh Day Adventist faith that they developed a relationship. But the relationship at first was merely Cheryl’s desire to have French teach her Spanish, a language which he had become very fluent in.
“I was good at speaking and writing Spanish and she wanted me to teach her…she somehow had confidence in me to help her, but out of that Spanish lesson experience we became really close,” he recalled. The two had many similar interests, including the passion for teaching.
PRESIDENT’S COLLEGE
For a period they both taught at an institution that was designed to cater to the academic ‘cream of the crop’ who graduated from primary level schooling. The institution was President’s College [PC]. French’s teaching expertise is what caused him to be transferred to that then prestigious school in 1987. He described his days at PC as his best teaching experience.
“It was a great school; it was a motivating school. I taught Social Studies and History and by 1990 they had begun doing CXC, so I started teaching History to Forms Four and Five,” he recalled.
The school, he recalled, was furnished with some of the best administrators the likes of Oswald Kendall, the then principal, and his deputy, Gordon Harewood. “These men were great educators; I have never come across two as good as those men,” he admitted.
Students at PC were exposed to a whole gamut of subject areas including the Sciences, Arts, Drama, Technical Studies, Agriculture, Music and so many more. And according to French, “they really could have studied, and so it was no hard task to work with them when you were seeing good results.”
“They used to rival Queen’s College,” said a smiling French.
But things started to dwindle for PC in subsequent years, and it wasn’t for the lack of good teachers. French revealed “there were some attempts to denigrate the image of the school.”
MIGRATION
By 1997 he had parted ways with the school and for the first time took on a teaching role at a private educational institution – Mae’s Secondary School.
A few years later, French was prepared to leave these shores to join his wife, who had accepted a teaching opportunity in The Bahamas. The two were able to make quite a comfortable life there off of their teaching earnings. But by 2005 tragedy struck. French’s wife, who was ailing for a few years, succumbed. He, however, stayed on and worked, teaching privately at first and then moving on to a government job.
It all came to an end in 2012 when circumstances would force him to return to the land of his birth. Upon his return he took up residence at Bachelor’s Adventure on the East Coast of Demerara and started doing what he knows best – teaching.
This time he gained employment at the privately-operated Chase Academic Foundation and, according to him, he was given free will to teach his lessons from his head, rather than being aided by lengthy notes. He would continue there for quite a few years before returning to Mae’s School for a few months.
French, who last year remarried to yet another Cheryl, has also taught, on a part-time basis, at a number of other schools including Bladen Hall Secondary and The Bishops’ High.
Although, he currently engages the teaching-learning process at the South Ruimveldt Pure Master’s Academy, French describes himself as a ‘free lance’ teacher who is willing to teach wherever he is needed.
“I can come to you or you can come to me and I always work very hard with my students,” he assured. According to the teacher whose main teaching specialties are History, Geography, and Spanish, he lives by the mantra: “Educators do not retire; they are works in progress and agents of change…”
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