A true gentleman, storyteller, and veteran educator

I met this extraordinary gentleman in late August 1995 when the mantle of leadership of Guy’s Hill High School was handed over to me. Mr Irvin Clive Nathaniel Small was vice-principal to the previous principal and was tipped to act as principal of the rural St Catherine institution during and after her pre-retirement leave.

The narrative changed, however, and that created a new rite of passage.

One may understand that the stage was set for the new principal and the long-standing and established vice-principal to begin together as nemesis, but in a situation where all hands were needed on board in revolutionising a school that was originally crafted to domesticate and make the children of the poor, uneducated, and powerless merely meek and mild, there was absolutely no room for that.

When some of Mr Small’s colleagues who had previously served with him for decades realised that he was not playing the classic Machiavellian game, they were annoyed and tried to play it themselves, but like the dissolution of every good story, the climax is the triumph of right over wrong, good over evil.

Mr Small served as deputy for 14 years of my administration and spent a total of 33 years at the Guy’s Hill High School. He took over as principal when I left in 2008 and retired in 2012.

He was a measured man, of equable temperament, and a people person.

He was an expert of the social geography of Northeast St Catherine and beyond and had a strong penchant for storytelling. He knew learners by their names because he was familiar with their parents, grandparents, and in many cases, their great-grandparents.

A COMMUNITY SOCIALITE

He was indeed a reservoir of social knowledge and historical anecdotes. A farmer at heart, he was the first to roll out a green carpet on which for you to walk – a true community socialite (and please do not confuse that word to mean socialist).

I can still recall his disgust, telling me of an encounter he had in the bustling metropolis of Linstead, St Catherine, when one of his past students, “a known weed smoker and time-waster whilst at school”, greeted him as “Mi Teacher” and begged him a Guinness.

“So what you did?” I asked.

Mr Small calmly replied, “Simply reminded him that I was his teacher, so if there’s any buying of Guinness, he should go buy me a case and put it in my car.”

Mr Small abhorred youngsters spoiling themselves by and through the smoking of cannabis, so together, we developed a foolproof drug-testing regime. Anyone who was a suspect of that practice was taken to the sickbay and Mr Small would sniff their fingers and palm and thereafter advised me yea or nay. He never missed.

In 1971, the school now known as Guy’s Hill High opened its doors for the first time as Guy’s Hill Junior Secondary, and Mr Small was a pioneer teacher on that staff. Later, the school was converted to Guy’s Hill Secondary, still without adequate educational infrastructure.

The present name was given a few years before my arrival, but I was never mystified by the official ruse as I was sure of the Herculean challenges ahead to move from a low-expectation, low-quality educational holding area to a modern, competitive, aggressive, effective, scientific school of choice.

Mr Small became an integral part of that revolutionary engine. He utilised all the skills he had to the best of his ability.

He left us on Friday, October 28, 2022, at the age of 70, doing one of his greatest loves: tending to his field in the rural farming community of northeast St Catherine.

Thank you, my brother and colleague. The struggle continues in our field of education, but victory is certain.

“A luta continua, victoria e certa.”

Rest In Peace, Teacher.

- Timothy Bailey is a social anthropologist and educator. Email editorial@gleanerjm.com