“Teaching is a profession, not a job. It is a special calling from God,” Ingrid Peters said as she reminisced on her more than 35 years of service to Guyana’s children.
Now retired, the 53-year-old visually impaired teacher was pleasantly surprised last week when she received an award from the Guyana Teachers Union on World Teachers Day, for her outstanding contribution to education in Guyana.
Peters started her teaching career at the David Rose School for the Handicapped where she taught braille to the blind.
After two years there, she moved to the St Rose’s Complex, where she spent the next 18 years teaching music. Peters’s next tenure was at St George’s High School, where she taught for some 10 years. She also gave help to both St Agnes Nursery and Primary, and St Margaret’s Primary in the field of music. Peters retired last year.
Even though she is not in the education system anymore, she is continuing her mission of being the pioneer for bringing integration to the blind and visually impaired in Guyana. She currently runs a private braille and music class in Kitty, between Delph Avenue and Middleton Street. She is currently working with 5 students ranging in age from 7 to 16 years old.
“I enjoy teaching naughty children, because naughty children make the best students. It also makes teaching exciting and challenging. When other teachers would complain about naughty children I would say give then to me,” she said, chuckling.
Peters was born with congenital cataract which resulted in her losing her sight when she was just 16 years old.
In 1965, owing to the lack of facilities for the blind and visually impaired in Guyana, she was sent to Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) when she was 6 years old. She was educated at the Santa Cruz Special School in T&T.
Peters spent some 12 years at that institution and on her return to Guyana in 1977, she noticed that not much had been done to help people like herself. “And that was when integration of the blind and visually impaired began. It was always my dream to have integration in Guyana,” said Peters.
She then sought to acquire as much knowledge as she could and was the first blind person to graduate from the Cyril Potter College of Education. She then attended the University of Guyana and was the third blind person to acquire a degree from that tertiary institution; and the first whose degree was in Fine Arts.
Peters’s wish now is that her life would serve as an inspiration for others, particularly her three-year-old granddaughter, Akia Peters who attends Tree of Life Nursery. “So today, tomorrow I should leave this world, I want to leave a legacy behind, so that she would look back at my contributions and see what I have achieved so she too, can contribute to Guyana,” Peters said.
Peters extended thanks to the Guyana Teachers Union and the Ministry of Education.
When asked what message she would like to send to both current and aspiring teachers, Peters smiled and replied, “The message is, if you want to be a good teacher you have to love yourself and teaching. A good teacher is a positive role model. If I should live my life all over again, I would be a teacher. You see, it is a profession not a job. It’s a special calling from God.”
