Audrey McKoy is presented with a painting from Half-Way Tree Primary head girl Christina Clarke at a recent ceremony marking her retirement from teaching. In the background is the school's head boy, Arklon Robinson. - Contributed

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

THE AMERICAN general Douglas MacArthur once said, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away." The same could be said of teachers like Audrey McKoy who recently retired after working for 40 years as an educator.

Thirty of those years were spent at Half-Way Tree Primary School which recently recognised McKoy's contribution with a ceremony at its Burlington Road location in St. Andrew.

Past students of Half-Way Tree Primary, a representative from the Jamaica Teachers' Association and Shortwood Teachers' College, where McKoy was educated, attended the event.

In an interview with The Gleaner, McKoy, 60, said she plans to finally complete the master's degree in education she started four years ago. Typical of teachers from her generation, she said it will be difficult to stay away from the classroom.

Loves teaching

"I love teaching, you know, so I don't think I'm going to stop," she said. "If the opportunity provides, I'll do some teaching, but individually. I don't want a big classroom."

But for a five-year job with the postal service as a telegraph clerk, McKoy spent her professional life in front of a blackboard. After graduating from Shortwood Teachers' College, she did her apprenticeship at Red Hills Road All-Age and St. John's Basic School in Hannah Town, before moving to Half-Way Tree Primary where her older sister, Sonia Johnson, was an established teacher.

During her years at Half-Way Tree Primary, McKoy served as the school's vice-principal and acting principal.

The education landscape has transformed dramatically since McKoy entered the fray in the late 1970s. Primary school classrooms were not as crammed, and violence among students was inconceivable.

McKoy acknowledged that the Jamaican student at all levels is "more exposed to the world" because of the Internet and cable television. She noted that the contemporary teacher, while more qualified, has a challenge keeping them in check.

"When I started, teachers were more in control, but now teachers find it difficult to deal with indisciplined students and parents, who are much younger," she explained. "(Younger) teachers are frustrated with the environment. There's not much importance attached to teachers anymore so there's no respect."

Respected person

The teacher was a respected person in Jamaica when Audrey Johnson decided to follow her sister in the education field during the late 1960s. The third of nine children, she said she got a 'rounded education' at Mico All-Age, just a hop and skip from the Cross Roads area where she was born and raised.

Although Jamaica was into its fifth year as an independent country when she became a teacher, the strict discipline of the British school system was still in place.

Her first real teaching assignment was Half-Way Tree Primary, then located in the heart of the square for which it was named. It had a remarkable teaching staff that included respected teachers like former principals Lilla James, Winni Berry and Elspeth Mattocks.

McKoy is married to Carlton, a medical technologist at the University Hospital of the West Indies. They have two sons, Jomo and Kamau; the latter is a teacher at the Robert Lightbourne High School in St. Thomas.