Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer
Reid
He bounded into the vice-principal's office with all the confidence in the world! His smile lit up the room as he reached out to greet me with a firm handshake. Eyes fixed steadily on mine, he introduced himself: "Good morning, Sir. I am pleased to meet you".
Thus began my interview with this 16-year-old student of Jamaica College.
"Were you always this confident and sure of yourself?" I asked.
"No, Sir!" came his quick reply.
"So, what has brought about this change?" I pressed.
"Getting rid of the anger and finally realising that I can be a success at whatever I set my mind to," he explained.
Time and again during our brief discussion, the fifth-former returned to the deep-seated anger and resentment he had lived with during his first four years at Jamaica College; and even before coming to the school.
It was nurtured, he said, by his early experiences at home and in his community.
He gave expression to that anger in the most negative and subversive ways, at the historic institution on Old Hope Road. Being a natural leader, it seems, he quickly formed his own clique, bent on undermining the constituted authority of the school, at every turn.
"Everything that they told me not to do, I went ahead and did just that. So, the rule is that students should not wear sneakers to school; I wore sneakers. I formed my own group of boys, or alliance, dedicated to fighting the Jamaica College system."
Such is the influence of this student, however, that, now that he has changed his rebellious ways, most of his former alliance members have reportedly also seen the light and have changed direction as well.
But, to what does he attribute this 'Damascus Road' transformation?
"The Success Programme, Sir!" he readily confided.
The Success Centre, a special unit set up at the school for problem students, was introduced in December. Participants are removed from the larger student body for six weeks, in the first instance, and taken through a programme of reorientation, designed specifically to meet their psychological and emotional needs. Those who complete the six weeks successfully will be reinstated in the mainstream, hopefully, with a new, better attitude.
'last-chance saloon'
It is a virtual 'last-chance saloon' for some of the boys, who were on a slippery slope towards the exit gate, until the school's new principal, Ruel Reid, designed this alternative path to redemption.
"We decided to name it, 'The Success Programme', because we were determined to make genuine success stories of these boys and put Jamaica College (JC) on the road to becoming, once again, the number one high school in the country," Mr. Reid emphasised.
Recalling his days as president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, the JC principal decided to implement a range of behaviour management strategies - some that were examined at a special conference held to address the problem of violence in schools, in 2006.
Responsibility for the programme was placed in the hands of Annie Blake Williams, acting vice-principal.
"These are young men who were on the fringe and in danger of expulsion, being involved in all sorts of wrongdoing - extortion, using knives, smoking, truancy, etc.," she recalled.
Now, having gone through the six-week programme, a determination will be made as to whether they should be reintegrated into the mainstream.
But, back to the beginning: During the first session, each participant was shown an illustration of a road and asked to locate where along that road he stood, then; what were some of the potholes and, side streets and roundabouts he had to contend with; and, critically, to identify the obstacles still blocking his path towards the goals he wants to achieve," Mrs. Blake Williams recalled.
Mentorship became a priority, with mentors being brought in to provide much needed support.
Participants continue their lessons in math, English and science subjects, but great emphasis is also placed on current affairs discussions, group and individual counselling sessions, personal grooming, responding to authority, time management and anger management.
"My aim is to find out why these young men are behaving like this and, I believe, there must be one person within the system that they can trust, and I got these young men to really open up and start trusting", she exulted.
The benefits of that trusting relationship soon became apparent during my interviews with the boys.
Enter student Number Two. His admitted infractions were small by his own estimation, consisting mostly of failure to wear the regulation uniform.
So, it was with a great deal of resentment that he found himself in this group of 'special' boys. Today, however, he is singing the praise of the Success Programme. "It has shown me what I was doing wrong and how to do deal with it, in the future," he asserted.
Trying to understand where that burning anger in him originated, he could only relate it to the early loss of his father.
Today, with new-found confidence, this young man who previously could not see beyond his anger, now has his sights firmly set on becoming a lawyer. "I'm actually good at the subjects that I would need to study law, so I will be working hard at passing them and moving on to achieve my goal," he confided, with a slight smile and a gleam in his eyes.
The adjective, 'Angry', was by now becoming a recurring theme in my interviews.
It was, therefore, not surprising that Student Number Three also fit that description - then some!
Tall and slim, his smile was not readily induced, but neither was he sullen nor rude, just exuding a new-found calm.
"This young man was always registering red on the anger scale!" was the vice-principal's colourful characterisation of him, before our introductions.
angry father
According to him, it started with an angry father, who did not refrain from physically abusing him and his older brother. The older sibling, in turn, took out his own hurt on the youngster, and the cycle continued with him, extending to his activities at school.
Now, he believes he has changed and wants others to know.
"Sir, I'm more determined than ever to prove to a lot of people that I have changed, because many of them do not believe that I can really change!"
A key element of the anger management process, he lectured me, was the simple act of counting to 10, when provoked by others. "You don't really have to react to everything; just count to 10, be mature and walk away," he advises.
It's advice he readily dishes out, even to programme coordinator, Annie Blake-Williams, when she occasionally gets upset with this group of 17 boisterous young men!
"I just have to chuckle to myself when he reminds me!" she related with a hearty laugh.
The programme is not confined to the boys. Parents are also required to attend parenting workshops at the Success Centre, and through that, an atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust is engendered.
And, it is reportedly going very well, with one of the mothers exclaiming: "Boy, me never know sey is dem wrong tings deh me was doing. I will have to try to do better!"
Meanwhile, over at the Success Centre, one of the older buildings, upgraded for this purpose, Mr. Douglas Sherman, head of the Math department, is about to start his session. A JC old boy himself, he lays aside his algebra lesson for a minute to remind the boys that they can succeed, despite the challenges they face.
"I think peer pressure is a major obstacle they will have to overcome, but deep down, they are taking note of what is being said to them," he opined in an aside with me.
Just as I was beginning to believe in the unqualified success of the programme, however, I was brought back to earth by one of the participants. Boldly, he shared his less-than-favourable assessment of the initiative, describing it as ill-conceived and unfair.
Removing participants from their regular classes and emphasising non-core curricular subjects constituted an unnecessary imposition on their time at school, he argued. Apprehension was also growing, he said, as some of them faced the prospect of having their time at the centre extended. "Slackness, Sir! Serious thing!" he emphasised, a thick note of frustration in his voice.
"Aah! The search for solutions - a bit like climbing up the down escalator," I mused, with apologies to the author, Michael Manley.
Come to think of it, wasn't he also something of a rebel during his time at this very school?
