Badge of Honour for Veteran Educator

Teaching chose her and kept her enraptured for more than four decades, and Nellie Brown would not have it any other way.

For her efforts, Ms. Brown has been awarded the Badge of Honour for Long and Faithful Service for more than 45 years in education.

She will be pinned at the National Honours and Awards ceremony to be held at King’s House on National Heroes Day, Monday (October 16).

“I’m glad; I am giving God thanks. I am looking forward to it because I don’t know what [the ceremony] will be like. I am praying to the Lord to guide and direct whatever will take place,” Ms. Brown tells JIS News.

She admits that in her very early years she considered pursuing nursing; however, she perished the thought before it even developed because of her fear of seeing blood.

Now a strong, sprightly 90-year-old, Ms. Brown holds fond memories of her time as an Educator.

The third of 11 children, Ms. Brown at six years old, was sent to be raised by her aunt, who was a teacher. This, coupled with her love for children, stoked the flames for her pursuit of a career in education. Her aunt also inspired her love for the church.

“She was a teacher, deacon in the church, organist, everything. I grew up in the church and [loving] school,” she says.

Ms. Brown tells JIS News that her fulfilling career began at the Refuge All-Age School in Trelawny as a pupil teacher in the 1950s after leaving high school.

At the dawn of the 1960s, she began her teacher training at the Moneague College in St. Ann.

“I did the first year [of teaching] externally and then I went to Moneague. I finished just in time for Independence. It was a very exciting time,” she notes.

When she concluded her studies in 1961, she returned to Refuge All-Age, where she remained for another 10 years.

“I was at home. I knew the children and their parents and they knew me, so everything went fairly well and then the church was beside the school, Refuge Baptist, pastored [at the time] by Rev. Stephen James, who helped to build William Knibb [Memorial High],” she says.

Ms. Brown adds that after her beloved aunt passed away, she relocated to live with another aunt in Salt Marsh in the parish, where she built her home in 1973, and still resides there today.

That year, she began teaching at the then Goodwill All-Age (now primary) school, which is located a stone’s throw away in St. James.

She notes that while she taught most grades at the all-age school level, she was initially upset when she was asked to teach kindergarten.

“When I just went to Goodwill, I taught grade eight until a couple years after, the infant teacher left and to my amazement, the principal asked me to be in the infant department. I was so mad! I was wondering how I could manage those little babies; I didn’t understand how I could teach those babies,” she says, noting that even thought of leaving the school.

However, a co-worker encouraged her to stay and take on the new challenge, which she did and soon her perception of teaching kindergarten changed.

“I really enjoyed teaching the babies. Each age group comes with their challenges, but I prefer [to teach] them,” she says.

Ms. Brown remained at the school for 16 years, then she moved on to her next adventure in teaching.

“I got a job in Greenwood [St. James] at a brand-new preparatory school that was opened. I taught there for 12 or so years until I retired finally,” she tells JIS News.

Ms. Brown, who retired in 1999, looks back fondly at her years as a teacher, noting that she has no regrets, and her career went smoothly.

“There were times when things would pop up here and there, but there was nothing [that bad] to speak of,” she says.

She tells JIS News that over the years, she has encountered several of her past students who have credited her encouragement and tutelage for many of their successes.

“Different [past students] at different times have come. Even recently, a young man popped up at my gate. He wanted to introduce me to his two sons who reside in America. They came to visit their relatives. The boys said that their father speaks about me constantly,” she says with a smile.

Ms. Brown recalls that during her years as a teacher, she would often shuttle children in her car to their destinations, a fact that many of them still remember and is a topic of conversation when they visit her.

The veteran educator’s advice to today’s teachers is to think of their job as a privilege, and exercise patience with their students.

“You have the privilege of building lives, encouraging someone to go on the right path, and sometimes the children don’t understand what you are doing for them. As an adult you understand that and you encourage them,” Ms. Brown says.

“There are times when your ego might get the better of you, but just take a moment and see that this is a child; this is a life. Don’t think of the present, think of the future; it all depends on the attitude of the person,” she adds.

The proud mother of two notes that among the awards she has received in her profession were long service awards from Minister of Tourism and Member of Parliament for St. James East Central, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, during her tenure at Goodwill All-Age.