Glenda Simms

At the one-stop shop in the village, it is a well-known fact that both Miss Mattie and Mass George, the home-grown fountains of knowledge, received their limited educational opportunities in the one-room school which, today, is trying to find teaching strategies and trained staff to ensure that even one girl from the area can achieve the kinds of grades that will automatically qualify her for entrance into the corridors of Hampton School.

Miss Mattie is convinced that if she had the possibility of even thinking about going to Hampton she would now be no ordinary old lady perched on a bar stool on anybody's shop veranda. On the other hand, Miss Mattie knows that she is not so ordinary. She is one of the best readers in the district and at her age, which she reckons has to be somewhere between 90 and 100, she reads without glasses, eats without teeth, supports her basic needs, and has enough change left over to afford the luxury of one or two white rum on the rocks on a daily basis.

In addition to all these stellar attributes, Miss Mattie is the centre of attention on Sunday afternoons, when young and old listen to her discussion on select stories, which she gleaned from the daily news-papers.

Last Sunday, Miss Mattie learned that Hampton School has become a victim of its great success as an institution of academic excellence, social graces and effective management.

In fact, the demand for space in this school is so pressing that the principal has decided that GOOD BEHAVIOUR will be the variable that separates one bright girl from other bright girls.

Fond memories

Miss Mattie was cheering in Principal Heather Murray's corner because she has fond memories of a time in Malvern and its environs when good behaviour was the norm amongst women and girls. In fact, Miss Mattie swears to all her gods that she was the worst-behaved girl in her time. She enjoyed a puff on her chalk pipe and she has been taking a daily swig of white rum for at least 70 years . Even though she does not know her age she remembers that she was "a big girl'' when she took her first drink and she has never looked back. On the other hand, Miss Mattie reminded everyone that she has been a nice woman all her life. She married her dear departed husband at a time when her biological clock had run out, but she nurtured his four 'dead-lef' children and ensured that 'none a dem tun tief'.

Miss Mattie re-emphasised her point and stated clearly that as far as she is concerned, GOOD BEHAVIOUR should have a prominent place in all educational institutions, homes, churches, in the Houses of Parliament and at the one-stop shop in the district. She is tired of the lack of discipline in the seating arrangements on the veranda, the boorish behaviours of the old-timers, the bad-word cursing of the young men and the 'no-manners' children who are now hanging around and listening to 'big people's' conversations.

Having stated her broad philosophical approach to the state of the district, Miss Mattie took one last swig of white rum on the rocks and remarked to Mass George, her newspaper-reading buddy, that she was shocked to learn that Hampton School should, from the outset, have been established as an educational institution for poor girls of St. Elizabeth, in line with the wishes of philanthropists Hugh Munro and Caleb Dickenson, who made their bequest in the middle of the 19th century.

Miss Mattie wondered aloud why poor people's children were deliberately kept out of Hampton and Munro when she was a girl. She knows that she had the ability to learn and regurgitate all the subjects that were taught to the hoity-toity white and near-white girls who came from all over Latin America and the Caribbean, and from the several dilapidated or disappeared Great Houses in Stanmore, Elgin, Roseberry, Braemar, Malvern , Hampton and in other locations in the parish, where Missis and Massa of times gone by, enjoyed one of the six best climatic regions in the world .

Miss Mattie also knows for sure that when she was young the only poor women and girls who were allowed through the gates of Hampton were the cleaners, the cooks, and the washerwomen, who entered the premises empty handed in the mornings and exited in the evenings loaded down with buckets of left-over soups and stews and packages of the funny food that the prissy girls would not eat.

But time longer than rope and Miss Mattie who is a die-hard PNP supporter would like everybody on the veranda to remember that it was Daddy Manley and Michael who broke down the gates of these prestigious and exclusive institutions and returned the Munro and Dickenson legacy to its rightful beneficiaries.

'Deep-gutted' guffaw

At this point in her train of thoughts Miss Mattie let out a 'deep-gutted' guffaw that could rival the best of Mutty Perkins' celebrated laughs.

In her glee, she reminded Mass George of the reaction of Missis in a certain BIG HOUSE when she heard that the maid's granddaughter had passed the Common Entrance and had earned a place in Hampton. Missis almost fainted. The same maid of the despised pedigree had to take charge and rub down her boss with 'revival oil' and quickly concoct her favourite ganja and ginger tea.

When Missis gathered her composure, she swore to God that Daisy's grand pickney would not be allowed to sit beside her daughter in Hampton School.

That is why she sent her young daughter to England. According to Miss Mattie, that girl did not turn out to much but Miss Daisy' granddaughter is a 'a big lawyer now'.

Mass George vividly recalls the happenings. In fact, he is convinced that all the district people who are of his vintage felt disrespected by Missis. It is as if women like Miss Daisy were designed by the Great Spirit to wash rich folks dirty clothes scrub backra massa floors and cook some delicious meals that their children could never taste.

But to make matters worse, Mass George reminded Miss Mattie that it was no secret that in those times a few dark-skinned girls did enter Hampton but rumours, via the kitchen staff informed the people in the district that the near-white girls sprinkled white powder on them in order to remind them that they were out of place.

Long lived

Miss Mattie is certainly thrilled to live long enough to know several 'district girls' who have gone to Hampton School. Of course, a number of them went in 'like dumplings and came out like Johnny cakes - they did not pass even one subject. That is why a few are amongst the 'posse' who meet daily at the one-stop-shop.

Like Miss Mattie this daughter of St. Elizabeth supports the principal of Hampton and applauds her emphasis on good behaviour, high achievement, respect for self and others as part of the educational package for young women and girls.

On my visits to Hampton I have observed young women and girls who walked tall with excellent postures, spoke in clear precise standard English on the school premises, and wore uniforms that complemented their different body forms.

I have also had the privilege of receiving a bouquet of flowers from a first former who thanked me for speaking to the student body and who elegantly curtsied when she handed me the token of appreciation. It was the first and only time when I would have loved to look in the eyes of The Queen of England and say 'eat your heart out'.

Indeed 'time longer than rope'. Every little girl in St. Elizabeth now know that she must work hard, behave well and strive to enjoy the entitlement enshrined in the Munro and Dickenson vision.

Hampton has MAINSTREAMED GOOD BEHAVIOUR in its educational offerings and the entire country should pay attention to this positive development.

The citizens at the one-stop-shop cannot wait for the next good story about their parish .

Glenda P. Simms is a gender expert and consultant.