I recall being in form 4AD1 at Kingston College. Our English teacher was an Englishman whose name, I think, was Mr. Boughton. He was not the first Englishman I had for a teacher, but he certainly was the most interesting, plus, he had a different style of teaching.
No one ever called him by his real name. Our English textbooks were written by an author named Pink. There was a blue Pink and a red Pink according to the color of the textbook. So we nicknamed our teacher, “Mr. Pink” and sometimes we called him “Pinky.” He was a heavy smoker and his fingers were permanently stained yellow as a result. And he never wore a belt. We concluded that he owned only one suit and one pair of shoes which always seemed in need of some polish. He was a busy man and was involved in many extracurricular activities, especially those that involved the dramatic arts. I recall that he choreographed an extravaganza at the national stadium for the school’s 40th anniversary. It was a spectacular sight involving hundreds of students carrying torches onto the dark playing field at night.
Our teacher left the school at the end of that year to return to England; but before leaving he told us that we had covered the entire syllabus for GCE English one year ahead of schedule and our class would do well in the subject. Most of us passed the English exam so he was correct in his assessment. Yet, his classes did not seem that rigorous and his teaching methods were far from traditional. He never seemed to use the text and never collected much work from us.
We spent entire classes doing crossword puzzles. No, not the kind you see in Air Jamaica’s Skywritings magazine, but the kind you see in the London Times or the New York Times. He didn’t actually hand out puzzles; I suppose that would have looked frivolous in those days; so he read them out to the class and showed us how to solve them. I recall his reading of the clue: resistance units that work initially for the crown. And my shock at being the first to figure out the correct answer: OHMS. We were all used to seeing that acronym on official mailings from the government indicating, On Her Majesty’s Service. That was before Independence, of course. I was also taking physics and learning to use an ohmmeter, an instrument used to measure electrical resistance--in ohms.
I am amazed that I can still remember so much of what happened in English class, when nowadays, I can barely recall what took place yesterday. In that year, my friend, Glen Chong, sat next to me in the back row of English class and all the other classes we had in that classroom. Sadly, Glen was shot and killed two years ago in a robbery, one Sunday afternoon in New Kingston, while making a bank deposit for his business. He was a good and kind person, admired and loved by many. He established businesses, knew how to “make payroll” and cared for his workers. I miss my friend. And, sometimes, I miss those days of yesteryear, when I was young.
