At the ripe old age of 90, Blanche Duke is more alert than many much younger and as a former teacher, ever concerned about the present generation, but says the burden is on teachers to take their responsibility of moulding young minds seriously.
Thirty-five years after she formally left the public education system, the Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara resident has not shied away from doing her part to steer the young generation in the right path.
Whether it is stopping errant children in the street and speaking to them (she makes it clear that she does not quarrel), teaching Sunday school, or sharing her views with current teachers, Duke is not weary in her effort to impart knowledge. She abhors young people using profanity while conversing and does not shy away from upbraiding them whenever possible.
In fact not even police officers are spared. She recalls hearing one officer using profanity while conversing with his colleague in front of a police station.
“I said to him ‘Mr policeman, you using those kinds of words?’ I said, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself’
and I just kept going. They just looked at me, they didn’t say anything…” Duke tells the Sunday Stabroek.
She points out that if it were someone else the officer might have effected an arrest; but notes that the two officers were not even quarrelling, just having a conversation.
“I call some of them police babies because they don’t even look like they were trained properly, some look like school boys,” she says, adding that in her days a policeman was someone with stature and someone you looked up but now, “as the children say they are passed for grass.”
She recalls too, being irked at the sight of a young man riding a cycle, while a woman walked alongside and when she enquired she learnt it was his mother.
“I said, ‘Man you should get down from that cycle.’ It turned out that it was mother and son. I said, ‘Tell him to get off the bicycle.’ I said, ‘Nonsense! You’re walking on he’s on a bicycle?’” her disgust is palpable.
Her instruction was followed.
She is both amused and maddened by the seeming dependency of people on cellular phones which they use all the time and those who walk with bottled water and sip regularly, regardless of what function they are at.
“If you are thirsty and you want some water, excuse yourself, go drink some water and come back…” she remonstrates. During a recent interview with this newspaper at her home, Duke, who retired as deputy principal of the then Government Training College for Teachers but was acting head at the time, reveals that she does everything for herself.
Up until recently, she was a keen gardener, but now does less of this. She says she does not know how some people say they have nothing to do as she always has things to do.
“I do everything for myself, and what can’t be done today would be done tomorrow or the day after,” she says.
Maybe if she had children they would have done things for her, Duke says, but she never married and finds no difficulty in helping herself.
Teacher Duke
“I believe I always wanted to be a teacher…” she responds when asked why she chose teaching. In her days at school, the older children would be sent to be in charge of classes in the absence of a teacher and she became accustomed to being in charge of a classroom.
In her time too, she says, teachers were always aware that they were part of a team at the school where they taught and that the team had a mission. They knew their roles in ensuring the mission was achieved. She is not too sure that is the case anymore.
While not integrally involved in the education system, Duke keeps abreast through the news and says what she sees happening on the streets, “does not make me feel so good.”
Determined to instil discipline wherever she can, she says, “If I see them and they are going wrong, I talk to them. I hear people say they don’t talk to children because they would give them rudeness. Well fortunately none ever gave me rudeness.” She adds that if they did she would ask the children if that was how they were taught to speak in school.
She even addresses the manner in which children eat while on the road. They don’t eat mangoes, she says, they tear them apart, and she would point out to them that they would dirty their clothes and get to school with dirty hands.
Now when she approaches children, she would hear one or two whispering, ‘Look the lady coming! Look the lady coming’ and then they would all be on their best behaviour.
“I say if I talk to ten and only one hears, then one has learnt and that one might influence someone else. And if we don’t talk to them then who will.”
In her days regardless of where a teacher was placed, whether it was a
government, Catholic or Anglican school, once that teacher saw a child erring on the roadway, “you pull them up.”
These days teachers pass children on the road and would not “even give them a look.”
Duke says in her days all it took was a look for children to become circumspect.
“You are the teacher. You have to assert yourself and that is what I am not sure teachers are doing. You have to have the confidence. You are in charge not the child…,” she notes.
Told that some teachers believe the system does not allow them to be in charge, as most are not allowed to administer corporal punishment and that the ‘no child left behind’ policy is translated by some children as not being required to do any work, Duke disagrees.
“The point is, if I am a teacher and my class is repeatedly having failures and they will move up anyhow, that doesn’t give me any satisfaction. I would be better off doing something else.
“In our day, I went into teaching knowing that we are in loco parentis [Latin term for in the place of a parent]. That is what a teacher is – from the time they leave home to the time they get home. You are a parent and you have to act as a parent.” Duke is adamant about this.
She acknowledges that some parents don’t control their children and as such the child carries the said behaviour to school. But that never deterred her. Even at Sunday school at the Anglican Church she attends, she ensures that the children know that they must complete the work given to them. Those who disobey are made to remain at the church until the work is completed and after a few weeks of this all the children fall into line.
Duke notes that teachers no longer wait until children leave school, but rather sometimes you “see teachers and children hustling down the stairs together.
“That was unheard of! Teachers don’t have any dignity? I mean they dress up in their lil high heel shoes and that’s all?”
She admits that it is different generation but for her “certain standards and types of behaviour don’t change.” She taps her hands on the arms of her chair for emphasis as she makes that statement adding that the teachers must have value.
‘A little worried’
Taking a look at crime, she notes that Guyanese now live like prisoners in their own homes, something she refuses to follow as she wants to get out of her home if something happens. But she says this is so because of children not being taught the right values in life and you have to bar them out because they are not fit to live with.
“All this is happening because we let the children do as they like. Some of them pass examinations, they have academics but they know nothing about moral values, social values and emotional values all of which are important,” she says.
Pointing to the heavy focus on academics, Duke says she is astonished at the number of children and even adults who do not know to read, noting that some teachers read to the children.
Teachers, she says, should be models for the children for making them “fit to live and fit to live with.
“I don’t know, I get a little worried,” she admits, but insists that she will continue to speak to children because someone has to speak to them.
Focusing on teachers’ remuneration, she agrees that the cost of living is high, but quickly adds, “Cost of living was always high. Teachers never had wonderful salaries. And if you expect to be rich don’t be a teacher.” She says in spite of the low wages, teachers in her day had a certain amount of dignity. She notes that she gave children lessons back then without being paid, as she felt she had to help the children to do better.
This is not the case today as children have to pay for lessons and some accuse teachers of only teaching at lessons. Many schools also do not place emphasis on physical education, singing and poetry which was important in the past and helped the child to be more rounded.
“I am amazed at Sunday school, many of the children can’t sing they croak,” she says, pointing out that there are no longer prayers and hymns in school.
Teachers need to budget their time and not use the excuse about attending the University of Guyana, she says. “We never used to go to UG, but we needed to take them exams and we used to have to study for them. Some of us used to take correspondence courses, but we still had to get the work done… you have to budget your time, budget your money.”
Duke began teaching at the age of 15 as a pupil-teacher, working alongside a senior teacher at the BV Government School; a school she had also attended. Prior to moving on to the teacher’s training college she was at the Enmore Government School remained there for 13 years, leaving as the deputy head.
Duke holds dual Guyanese and American citizenship and explains that she was born in America. But her mother died when she very young and her father brought her and her brother to Guyana to live with his sister who was childless. Her brother returned to live in America, where he later died, but Duke made Guyana her home, even though she “is always up and down” between the two countries. She is very involved in church work. She is the organist at her church and while not a substantive Sunday school teacher, she works with the children and is present at every Vocational Bible School (VBS). She has also represented her church overseas.
