By Alicia Roache, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA'S "GRANDMOTHER of modelling", as she is fondly called is a statuesque, 5'11'', 120 lb., dark skinned, woman with full lips and interesting brown eyes. Today, she is dressed in a dark blue, tailored skirt suit that fits her svelte figure almost to perfection, the jacket is matched by a checkered red and white top, and her long legs, descend into a black stiletto pump. The sheer glamour of her attire, her confidence and vibrant personality clues you in that this is no ordinary 47 year old woman.
A PIONEER
Her name is Althea Laing and she is a pioneer of arguably one of the most glamourous professions in the world. She was Jamaica's and the Caribbean's first model to appear on the cover of an international magazine, Essence. Yet today she is in a profession that is often perceived as anything but glamorous. Today Althea Laing is a teacher of English Language at May Day High School in Mandeville.
Althea began her modelling career at an age when most models today are about to retire. At age 29, Althea was determined, "whether or not I'm old or not, I will go abroad and be a model", she says. And that she did.
This combination of talents, educating and modelling, have always been a part of Althea's personality. Despite her glamorous outward appearance, Althea maintains that teaching was her first love and her true calling. She began teaching at age 18, before she started modelling. Now she is back in the classroom, which she says she couldn't escape. "Genetically I couldn't go anywhere else" she claims.
Althea names a long list of family members who are either teachers, principals, or otherwise involved in education.
"I am from a family of teachers", she says. "My father got the Governor-General's award and the Prime Minister's medal, my mother and father were principals of Black River Primary School, Gene Mullings of Omni Prep is my aunt, Noel Montieth is my cousin... I had no choice, on all sides I am surrounded with teachers. When you have a calling in life whatever you do you will come back to it", she says.
In an attempt to pass on her knowledge and experience as a model, the Althea Laing Grooming Institute was formed in 1995. But Laing explains that because of the country's economic situation, things did not work out as planned. "I don't think Jamaica was ready for it at that time. If they had a choice to make between grooming classes and food then they would choose food".
A firm believer, it seems in God, Althea believes everything that happens, her successes and her failure are as a result of divine intervention. "If you do something before the time that the Lord says is the right time, then you might have to put it on hold," she says of her grooming institute.
But now it seems that Althea is ready to take up the challenge of grooming the young women of Jamaica once again. This time her grooming workshops will also feature lessons in English and will be done islandwide. A national pageant of high school students is also on her agenda. The aim is to find "a girl who can become a role model for her school".
Althea says she finds more fulfilment from teaching than she got from modelling because she gets an opportunity to impact positively on her students. "You build them up, boost up their self esteem and you'll see how far they can go", she says of "her children". She seems to find teaching at May Day especially fulfilling, she is happy in the classroom among her students and they respond similarly to her.
"One thing about May Day is that we have a family here. All the teachers are concerned about the children and you don't have children being rude to teachers here because all the teachers work together". Her job as teacher however, is nontheless plagued with the challenges of trying to educate a different generation of students. "Children don't read like they used to, don't do homework like they used to, parents don't supervise them like they ought to and that is part of the problem why we are not getting the results like we used to" she says.
STRONG WORDS
For this, she has strong words for the decision makers whose job it is to build education. "You hear all this talk about values and attitudes and you don't see anybody coming to do and to be for the students in terms of values and attitudes. We really need the hands-on people to implement the values and attitudes campaign because we are losing the young people", she says. "We are losing these children and losing them fast", she comments. That is why, in addition to completing her degree in Education, Althea also plans do a MA in Psychology "I think in the future we will have a need for Psychologists", she says.
Althea suggests that she has been through some challenges, but there is no sign of that today. "I have been through the really bad, but God has been there for me. And sometimes when God needs to get your attention he puts you through difficult times in life". From those experiences, Althea has compiled a book of inspirational poems entitled Dear God are you There?. "I'm moving to another level in my life but I don't want to talk about it because I don't want to disturb the positive energies that are flowing".
