Recently, when newly appointed Principal, Rupert Hemmings, visited Florida as special guest at the Big Purple Session, he remarked to me that the ‘white shirt’ had lost its respect at K.C., alluding to the fact that Sixth Formers were not as respected now as they used to be. He should know, as one who has been involved with the school from September, 1965 when we both started in Form 1D. Interestingly however, Headboys have always expressed concern, over the years, at the level of indiscipline encountered in the school and the difficulty Prefects face enforcing same. My predecessor in office, Kingsley Cooper (of Pulse fame) felt that one of the reasons why Prefects failed was because “students who have been involved in indiscipline and even impertinence for five years cannot be expected to become paragons of virtue overnight.” I do feel however, that the natural selection process of getting to the Sixth Form would ensure that more of the better disciplined and responsible students would be the ones who made it.
In my year, we had decided to concentrate our efforts more on the Third Formers at North Street feeling that they would be more easily influenced. With that in mind, Prefects made themselves available to help students in weak areas. Our most successful program with them, was the staging of a Third Form Challenge Quiz as a carbon copy of the JBC School’s Challenge Quiz. I was recently reading the report on the quiz in the then Year Book and it mentioned that Miss Frances Phillips (later Mrs. Frances Coke), was the quiz mistress in the final between 3A and 3T1. It seems that that was the year she started at K.C. , which would also make that her introduction to Schools Challenge Quiz there. Incidentally, Ivor Nugent and Orett Campbell, both members of the winning 3A team went on to be on a winning School’s Challenge team, a few years later.
We did get involved with other forms, especially through the Saturday Classes organized by the Principal, Mr. Douglas Forrest. There we taught mainly Mathematics to 4th and 5th formers. Teaching was always my first love and even as Headboy I had officially taught Chemistry (Ivor said it was Maths), in Form 3A, for a term, when a teacher had left. It is easy to realize that respect was very high then. All 3rd formers and many 4th formers called me Mr. Goode and they would come seeking me out to help them with math problems or to sit with their class if a teacher was absent.
We did not forget the students at Melbourne and I recall my deputies, Rainford Wilks (now Professor Wilks), and Derrick Aarons (of Bio-ethics fame), visiting Melbourne at least once to meet students and talk with each form of the greatness that was K.C. and also to tell them what was expected of them. I was really pleased that a later Headboy, Cedric Lazarus (now Dr. Cedric Lazarus), seems to have remembered such a visit.
We were also instrumental in injecting more life in the house system. The main house activity then was athletics and there was also basketball the year before, but I do recall that in my year table tennis and football were added. Hardie House always stood out as they were the only team that was always fully clad in house colours for all events, mainly because I was also House Captain. Incidentally, this meant for example, collecting all the house jerseys after a meet and washing them, to have them ready for the next meet. Just to emphasize that it took effort to achieve a good thing. Non-the-less, it was always felt that the house system at K.C. was poorly organized.
Of note, that year we had a Staff vs. Prefect football game, organized by the Prefect body. The Prefects turned the tables on them and gave them a 6-0 lesson. I didn’t have much use for my feet as far as football goes so I headed the ball in for one of the goals. I do recall also that the deputies and myself, because we all played basketball, had done a lot to keep the sport alive in the school and I had spent much time introducing it to the 3rd formers.
The icing on the cake for our Sixth Form activities was a Sixth Form Dinner to bid farewell to outgoing the Principal, Douglas Forrest, and to welcome in Rev. E. Don Taylor. It was a grand affair and I can well remember the impressive program that Mr. Joe Earl (Chemistry teacher and later Headmaster at Calabar), had helped to get printed. Mrs. Parchment (wife of Sports Master, Trevor Parchment, and History teacher) brought flowers for the tables and Mrs. Stiebel (parent of Douglas Stiebel – Form 3B) was chief organizer. Background music was provided by Harold Butler (later music fame) – Form 3A and very good even then. In fact, I specifically remember one of the prefects, Dennis Williams, giving me a special handshake for how well organized a function it was.
That was a good year for the Prefect Body and certainly for me. It makes me feel real good when I hear someone say “he was my Headboy” in reference to me. It always comes across to me as if at least for the moment, they had forgotten the 4, 5 or 6 other Headboys that they would have had while at school. The current Sixth Form should be encouraged to first respect themselves and to dress and act in a manner that would command respect. I would encourage the Headboy and his deputy to make a point of visiting Melbourne to meet and talk with the students and so hopefully sow the seed for the desired growth in the future. At North Street, I would encourage them to work with the Third Formers more, organizing inter form or inter house activities at that level and seeing them to completion. Act somewhat like big brothers, being quick and ready to help them with problems of various sorts. but especially in academics. All this would have to be done within the constraints of keeping up with their academics. Not like me who had missed many classes, though luckily, I still managed to stay ahead in my group but likely could have done better. I didn’t regret a moment of that year, however, (except perhaps that I could not find a justifiable reason to go back to school especially as I had only 6 years instead of the usual 7). The appointment of a member of staff to act as liaison and provide some guidance and ensure continuity from one year to another, (if it is not already in place), would be a good thing, I think.
With the above, and despite the strong negative influence of the community, I do think that it should be possible to bring back respect to the ‘white shirt.’
Fortis.
Selbourne Goode was Headboy for the academic year 1970 -1971.
