Morvia Facey-Gordon with her students at West Indies College Prep School in Mandeville, Manchester. Mrs. Facey-Gordon, who has been a teacher for the last quarter century, was the recipient of the 2005 Lasco 'Teacher of the Year' award. - CONTRIBUTED
MORVIAFACEY-GORDON is truly a woman of substance. She has been in the classroom for the last 25 years. This bastion of primary education still has the same passion, strong sense of love for children and loyalty to duty that took her to the classroom so many years ago.
Mrs. Facey-Gordon was recently awarded one of Jamaica's top awards for outstanding work in the field of education. She was the recipient of the 2005 Lasco 'Teacher of the Year' Award for teachers in independent (private) schools. Mrs Facey-Gordon began her career way back in the 1980s at a little school in Cedar Valley in St. Catherine. After two years there, she went on to the Pembroke Hall Primary in St. Andrew, and that experience had a great impact on her life.
BACK TO HER ROOTS
But after years in the public school system, Mrs. Facey-Gordon began feeling a pull to come back to her roots. She had studied at the then West Indies College (now Northern Caribbean University) where she had received her degree in Teacher Education. Having been commended time and time again by her peers, as a truly outstanding teacher, Mrs. Facey-Gordon felt the time had come to take what she had learnt out there back to her own institution.
"Oftentimes I was told that I'm a good teacher. Well, I said, if I'm hearing these good things about me out there, I ought to come back to the institution that trained me and give something back." And so, she went to teach at the West Indies College Preparatory School.
"My first impression of West Indies College Prep was this. One day I was at my classroom and a child picked up $100 from somewhere and he brought it to me and said 'Miss, I found this'. Because I'd never had that experience of a child picking up money outside and taking it to a teacher, I was quite impressed with the honesty. I was also impressed with the weeks of prayer, the spiritual emphasis. Each day you had a very special devotion with them (students)."
HAPPY DAYS
Life was never easy for Mrs. Facey-Gordon. Having been brought up by a domestic helper mother and a farming father, she felt the rigours of poverty during her early years. But she remembers these as happy days. Born in the parish of Portland, Morvia enjoyed the rustic hills, the lush greenery and the playing of cricket in the road. She pointed out that at first she wanted to be a nurse, but after being told she had to wait one year following the interview, she opted for the classroom.
Today, Mrs. Facey-Gordon is still in the classroom, challenging minds, sharing knowledge and shaping futures. She commends Lasco for its recognition of teachers "because teachers are nation builders". While she agrees that some teachers deserve the bashing they get, she contends that it is not all justifiable. "While people tend to look at the negative, Lasco has sought to focus on the positive."
