Dorcas Lee No ordinary teacher

DORCAS Lee is no ordinary educator. For 30 years she has moulded young minds, guided the wayward, mothered hundreds and enforced discipline. She is loved by many – yet resented by those not in acceptance of her outspoken and no-nonsense attitude.

As vice-principal for the Mt Moreland Primary and Junior High on Sligoville Road in St Catherine, Lee has no regrets for the path she has taken. Though her initial dream was to become a nurse, it was after doing youth service at Pembrook Hall Primary in 1973 that she was encouraged to do teaching by the then principal based on her performance.

This she did. She soon qualified herself at St Joseph’s Teachers’ College, Mico Teachers’ College and the University of the West Indies.

But her role is not limited to the classroom or ends when the dismissal bell rings. A past student of the school for 25 years Ann-Marie Whyte recalls her days at school as being one filled with fear for this teacher who wouldn’t stand for foolishness.

“Yet she was a true mother,” Whyte said. “I remember even after I left high school and could not get a job, Miss Lee walked out all of Portmore and Kingston with me for days trying to find one, sending out applications and asking at business places. Maybe she would not even remember these things today – but she never stopped until I got a job and was enroled at the Edna Manley School for the Visual and Performing Arts.”

And so all woman sat with this educator, who spilled her thoughts on the Jamaican education system and what’s behind the problems with indiscipline in schools.

AW: What was the system like 30 years ago when you first entered it?

Lee: This is where I started and when I started we had one big building with nine classes separated by black boards and about 25 to 30 children in each class. I believe children then were more receptive to learning than they are now. I don’t know if it was because children respected each other and respected adults but they really went out to learn. I preferred it back then – children were better behaved. The education system then sort of gave you the leeway to really guide them differently from now. Boys who you would say were ‘dunce’ then, they were brilliant in athletics, art and craft and other practical areas. Now these boys are ‘dunce’ in every area! When they are ‘dunce’, they just dunce! And I think it is a general thing, not just in Jamaica but worldwide. I think it is the tapering down of the whole self-discipline and self-respect. Some persons don’t have confidence in themselves so they don’t want to learn to evolve and reach the highest level that they can really reach.

AW: What are your views on the present education system?

Lee: In some areas students are grasping new horizons, I don’t know if it is the technological age that has influenced it or if it’s the global marketplace or parental guidance. Where parental guidance is lacking you find some children are not sure what they are supposed to do. Some of those, however, later on in life find themselves when they start to develop something more positive.

AW: What areas do you think need improvement?

Lee: Planning – (both) government and teachers planning to meet the students’ need. I think they need to do a feasibility study or a needs assessment study. They are on the books, however, to build more schools and give the slower ones some practical skills that they can earn from later on, instead of dumping the academics down their throat.

AW: What’s your favourite classroom memory?

Lee: (sighs) When you try to pass on information and guide children and they respond to you by asking questions, understanding it, doing it and coming out victorious. I have had children [who I taught] who went to university before me and I feel good because you saw the signs from here.

AW: Can you see yourself doing anything else?

Lee: Well I have eight years left in the system so it makes no sense at this point to consider anything else until then. After that I am not sure. I have applied for the principal position at this school but not sure whether I will be successful.

AW: Do you have any regrets pursuing your first love?

Lee: No, because in teaching I still get to exercise my nursing skills. I am sort of the nurse, the guidance counsellor, the mother, the father, the teacher, the everybody!

AW: What do you do for leisure?

Lee: Work! (Laughs) Well I watch television, chit-chat, I used to crochet but I don’t do that anymore.

Lee teaches design arts and Spanish but focuses mainly on mathematics for grades seven, eight and nine. She has one biological son and continues to be a mother to many. She feels that no matter how wayward a student, he/she should be given a fair chance instead of being sent home, which only compounds the situation and turns them into hardened criminals. However, she believes that discipline and counselling are inherent in such situations. In her view, teachers should brave the system in dealing with even the ones exposed to guns, stand strong under the pressure and try to help them as much as possible.

And as principal of the school Rupert Hamilton puts it, “She is deeply concerned with the development of the school and takes a great deal of interest in the students.”

-husseyd@jamaicaobserver.com