THE NAME Phillipa Willelmena Burgher is well known throughout Clarendon, especially in the towns of Spalding, Frankfield and Chapelton.
Mrs. Burgher was born in a district west of Frankfield, known as Orange Hill, on the 31st of October 1926. At two, she was taken by her mother to her maternal home, at Bunkers Hill in Clarendon, where she lived also with her step-father.
As an only child for her mother, Miss Burgher recalled being useful at home, sweeping the yard, cleaning the house and washing the dishes after meals and helping her parents in the field, planting ginger during the holidays and sometimes assisting with the production of sugar at the 'boiling house'.
She was educated at the James Hill Elementary School, where she sat her first, second and third year exams in 1945, and was successful.
Three years later, she was offered a probational job at Prospect in the parish, where she worked for one year, before moving to the Kilsit Primary School in Clarendon, where she spent five years as a teacher, without formal training.
While at Kilsit, she sat her Training College exams externally, because she was not offered a place in college after applying twice to the Shortwood Training College. "I was advised by my Minister, Rev. C.S. Clarke, my 'Spiritual' Father, to sit the exams externally, however, after reaping success in the first and second years, I failed the third year", recalled Miss Burgher.
Miss Burgher was eventually accepted at the Moneague Training College in 1958, where she was allowed to complete her third year exams and granted qualified teacher status.
Following her sojourn at Moneague, Miss Burgher went to Lime Tree Primary School in Clarendon, then back to Kilsit, where she spent four years training young lives. She then left for the Frankfield Primary School and spent almost three decades, moving up the ranks as a classroom teacher, senior assistant vice principal and then principal before retirement in 1990.
Miss Burgher continued to serve as a teacher after retirement. She worked at the Edwin Allen Comprehensive High School as a Remedial teacher, assisting students who had a difficulty reading, up to 1998. "I think we did very well with those students," said Miss Burgher. "It was a pleasure of mine being with them. I had to be very patient and sympathetic towards them and did not make them feel as if they were nobody," noted the experienced teacher.
Miss Burgher, who has moulded so many young lives during her tenure as a classroom teacher, has three children, all boys. She said while at the Frankfield Primary School she went to work in the Bahamas, but was not comfortable there, because of the children she left behind at home with her mother, while her husband worked in Kingston as a J.O.S. bus driver.
Miss Burgher served in various capacities outside of teaching. She has been an assistant secretary for the Frankfield Community Council for over 15 years, a member of the Frankfield Branch Library Committee for 28 years, between 1971 and 1999. She also served as secretary at the Frankfield Baptist Church, and is presently chairman for the local credit union branch in Frankfield. She is the correspondent for the Water Works Basic School in Clarendon, as well as secretary for the Frankfield Community Council.
Miss Burgher says she is a woman of service. "I enjoy serving people and I am not politically biased, I just serve anybody who has a need for service, I like to treat people as people," said the veteran volunteer.
The many services rendered by the teacher of decades of experience did not go unnoticed, as she received several awards from various organisations, including one from the Jamaica Baptist Union, who awarded her for long and meritorious service to the Church in 1995. Additionally, the Jamaica Library Service awarded her for long service to the Frankfield Branch Library in 1999, and she received the Golden Torch Award in 1993 for 43 years of service in the teaching profession. Miss Burgher was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1996.
"If I was to live my life over, I would spend it in the classroom. Although some people believe it is not rewarding, I had pleasure watching students achieving success up the ladder of life. It is so encouraging when I go into an establishment in any part of Jamaica and hear somebody comes along and says, 'hi Miss Burgher."
"I feel so good when I meet one whom I have helped to reach somewhere in life, I have been in America and even England, where I have met some of the students whom I have taught. They invite me out, they give me lovely gifts. They make me feel appreciated," said Miss Burgher.
She expressed displeasure with the attitude displayed by some of the students in the schools today. She said many are not giving of their best and that parents need also to display good attitudes for their children to emulate. "Parents need to get more involved in the learning process," she urged.
For the young teacher just entering the classroom, Miss Burgher has this advice. "As much as lie in your power, feel dedicated to the profession, see it as a calling and work towards success. Try to be pleasant and kind to your students as much as possible, don't try too much to retaliate to those who are ill-mannered as such, but try to encourage them and tell them that they can be better people if they try."
As to the students, Miss Burgher said, they need to show respect to those who are given charge of administering part of their achievements in education. She also called on them to show respect to the elderly, especially in the Frankfield community.
Miss Burgher expressed displeasure with the level of crime in the society today as against in the days when she was growing up.
