By Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer 
Photo by Avia Ustanny
REV ARCHER, Spelling Bee training master who has been, for the last 20 years, grooming National Spelling Bee winners has finally turned his attention to seeking a wife. But, who won't be intimidated by a man who possesses a vocabulary the size of several complete dictionaries?
The 51-year-old bachelor who is looking quite trim these days (he loves herbal teas, cycles and takes a very potent multivitamin every day) told Outlook that in the past, "I have had no time to socialise. I have had many close friendships which have not developed into intimacy."
No wonder, at his well kept home in Harbour View, there are three rooms on whose walls are shelves with books, including the many oversized dictionaries used as reference material for the spelling championships. For years, his nose has been buried in these tomes as he spent hours every day preparing strategies to help his protégés succeed. Reverend Glen Archer has produced 18 national champions in 20 years, missing only twice.
Less well known is the fact that the football team of Ardenne High School, for the only time in its history, captured the Manning Cup and the Olivier Shield when he was chaplain and manager,
He created a similar record for the school in the Schools' Challenge Quiz.
Spotting talent
"The Principal at the time, Mr. Roy Ebanks, had a knack for spotting talent. He suggested that I transfer the discipline of Spelling Bee to the Schools' Challenge Quiz team," Archer remembers.
Roy J. Ebanks, principal of Ardenne High School for 17 years, 1979 to 1996 states, "Mr. Archer perfected his technique for producing champions through his creativity, hard work, dedication backed up by his firm faith in God. His success in the programme is due to his outstanding techniques, but in large measure to the added dimension of his excellent rapport with his students, their schools and their parents. He instilled in his students that they be good spellers, but in addition, aspire to being good students all-round, not neglecting the important components of self discipline, the urge to succeed, buttressed also by their faith in God. His relationship with their parents assures him of their full support for the programme which goes beyond the call of duty. A similar approach to that given to Spelling Bee has made Mr. Archer a phenomenal success as a Schools' Challenge Quiz coach as well."
Ardenne High School won the School Challenge Quiz four times in its history. Three of those times were under Rev. Archer's tutelage.
Adlington Murray, guidance counsellor and social worker with Family Central in North Lauderdale, Florida, but who met Reverend Archer at Ardenne High School when they were both on staff, told Outlook, "Glen Archer is a very intense individual, when he focuses on something, it is like one 110 per cent. He is very hard on himself. He is always looking to improve on his achievements. He never settles down, never relaxes on his laurels, always trying to find any weakness in what he does and tries to improve on that."
Archer, a Spelling Bee national champion himself, credits his own commitment to discipline and excellence in part to the grooming process involved in securing the tile of National Champion 1965. "Even the child who comes last never leaves the same," he states.
There was also the influence of his parents who were teachers.
One of three children born to teachers Felix and Olga Archer, he recalls that at home he was never permitted to speak patois. The children were also grown in the church. Of the Archers three children, two Glen and Gene are now ministers and the sole daughter, Marcia Archer is a teacher.
But, Glen Archer wanted to be a pilot and while attending high school at St. George's College, he collected books on planes and aviation. His life changed, he said, when Reverend Rupert Lewis of the Church of God laid his hands on his head and said that he should use his 'gift of gab' in service as a minister.
Glen attended classes at the Jamaica Theological Seminary after St. George's, graduating summa cum laude in 1977 and departing with a bachelor's in theology. "Feeling" that he really should teach he applied to Ardenne where he taught for 23 years until the year 2000, when he resigned to become a training consultant.
Offering his special brand of training
He now offers his special brand of training in excellence to professionals and students alike.
Archer admits that he has a winning formula, part of which he shared with Outlook (see related story). He adds that he never restricts his thinking insularly or locally. His standard for the Spelling Bee is the Scripps Howard International.
Mr. Murray said, "When I was at Ardenne as a counsellor and having had the opportunity to see other programmes and I have always said that his programmes were the best run. In Schools' Challenge, then one could actually see his style and his efficiency translated into real results.
"In spelling Bee, his attention to detail and his willingness to take each child individually was evident. There is no carbon copy, no two who are alike he would try to work with each child in terms of strengths and weakness and create a new product. A lot of people think that these spellers are brilliant and that's not so. It takes training, guidance and application."
Reverend Archer states that indeed it is not the brightest student who does the best, but those who have the right attitude. Nor is it the student from the family with the most resources who excels. Two of his students in particular, he notes, were from Seaview Gardens with very limited means. He states that he is committed to making every Jamaican student believe that he or she is equal to the child with all the possible resources one could use.
"The great achievers are those who are committed to a step by step process," he claims.
Frank Uhuquart, age 91, says of Reverend Archer, "I have known him before 1969, he is my spiritual son." Archer, he says, in a world where those who go to church are looked upon as Christians but are not necessarily so, "is a true Christian".
"In the ministry in which he is involved in training these young people, I believe that God has specially helped him," Frank Uhuquart stated. Students who fall under the Reverend's hand will have to commit to great discipline. Reverend Archer admits, "We finish the Oxford Dictionary in six weeks. I go to the dictionary and draw out spelling bee words. Chances are that my child will know seven out of every ten words given at the finals."
Daniel Thompson, lower sixth A' Level student at Ardenne high school who grabbed attention in last years' CXC examinations for his ten distinctions in subject passes, and who has been declared the Caribbean's top science student was also the 2001 winner of the Gleaner Children's Own Spelling Bee.
Daniel told Outlook, "The spelling bee experience taught me diligence. Now when studying I can concentrate. I can comfortably spend three hours with a book
"For me," Daniel said, "there was a time when the words would not stick. Reverend Archer encouraged me, stating that they would come eventually if I kept at it. The parish finals and Scripps Howard were tough. He was there to help me through. He is very diligent and meticulous in his training, in whatever he does."
When he is not working, the Reverend is a reader and a nature buff. He has been to the Blue Mountain Peak five times. On free days, he offers counselling. "I am committed to improving people. Nobody is actually self-made," he states.
Searching for a wife and the secrets of celibacy
NOW THAT he has left his role as a full- time classroom teacher and works as a training consultant, Glen Archer has cranked up his search for a suitable mate. Exactly what kind of woman does he have in mind?
"I am looking for a spiritual woman with a deep commitment to Jesus," the Reverend told Outlook. "She must have beauty on the inside as well as on the outside, with a great spiritual depth. There are some women who are beautiful, but they are also vain. I am searching for a balanced individual in terms of lifestyle who can be in the world but not of it. She will have good mind and will be able to take me to the next level. A helpmate is someone who challenges you, who deepens your life and does not sap your energy. She should possess symmetry in lifestyle."
According to the Reverend, his formula for remaining celibate for the last half century is first based on the acceptance of his sexual identity.
"Temptation is not sin. Because you have an erection does not mean that you have trespassed," he states.
"I appreciate my desires. Once you see yourself in a positive light, you will accept your sexuality as normal and you will not abuse it. Further, I give back all my sexual feelings to God," (who gave him them in the first place).
The trainer says that he sublimates his sexual energies by re-channelling them into meaningful activity.
He adds, "I also see women as total beings and not as sex objects. They are not just a pair of legs. They are deserving of respect. I respect her mind and treat her accordingly. Sex is only a fragment of a relationship. Once you respect the whole women, then everything else falls into place."
Reverend Archer says that he also tries to take life one day at a time. "If I should begin to think of life in terms of one year, I will give in. I believe that every morning the Lord will provide me with the specific things I need for this day. God gives us strength for each day, not for tomorrow."
Another powerful plank in the structure of his currently celibate life is that he always, he says, thinks about consequences: "Where will I be after an experience? I want to have good memories, not hangovers."
Avia Ustanny
