Gwendolyn Warren - Ian Allen
...Journey with our staff reporter to St Ann to hear what Gwendolyn Warren, a now-retired teacher of 45 years, has to say about teaching then and now...
FOR 45 years Gwendolyn Warren's life revolved around the many thousands of students who passed through her classroom. So, it is only reasonable to expect that even after four years of retirement she still pines for her profession.
Ms. Warren of King Street in St. Ann's Bay said she spent her entire teaching career at the St. Ann's Bay Primary.
"I came in as a pre-trained teacher. It was traumatic at first but we had a very good, fatherly principal and he nurtured us," she said.
"It [the school] was a main building with three sections and the principal would sit at the front on a raised platform so he could see everything we were doing."
The children then, she said, were far more responsive as the school had the full support of the parents.
"Those days, the children were angels and at that time there was a better mixture of children in the school."
All this changed, Ms. Warren said, after the Common Entrance Examination was implemented.
"When this exam came in, the students had a better chance of going off to the secondary school and parents had better finances and so the children felt that they could do just about anything," she said.
Those 45 years held many fond memories for this veteran, who was eventually appointed vice principal.
"I really miss it (teaching) and that is why I now assist at the Women's Centre in St. Ann's Bay even though I am retired," she said with a far-away look in her eyes.
Ms Warren remembers each of her children clearly and found this a useful tool in getting them to toe the line.
"When I had a student ...[ who was misbehaving]... and whose parent I taught... I usually said 'your mother or father was not like that you know,' and this [would] help in getting them back on the right track."
While the monetary reward was slim, Ms. Warren's contribution did not go unappreciated by her past students, whom she spoke of with pride. At home and abroad, Ms Warren says she runs into students who remember her and look out for her.
She feels a sense of accomplishment, she says, when she takes a child from the stage where they know nothing to the point where they have achieved something. Many, she proudly points out, have gone on to pursue distinguished careers in teaching, medicine and law.
While not knocking today's teachers, Ms. Warren believes teachers then were different from those now.
"The teachers then had a more dedicated way towards their children. It is not like now when they give up easily."
