Original article source: Newsday
Dr Keith Rowley showed his vulnerable side on June 14 as he recounted the pain he experienced as a teenager after his grandmother died. The former prime minister said losing his grandmother was perhaps the most traumatic period of his life. He was speaking at a Men In Leadership Forum at Bishop’s High School, Mt Marie, Scarborough, Tobago.
The forum, a discussion on a range of issues, was one of the events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the school. It included three other distinguished Bishop’s alumni: THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Anglican Bishop Rev Claude Berkley. Journalist Ira Mathur moderated the event, which had a question-and-answer format.
Mathur asked the men if they could recall a moment during their time at Bishop’s when they felt overwhelmed, misunderstood or traumatised.
Rowley was the first to respond.
“My lowest moment was when I was in third form, having just survived Hurricane Flora in second form and we lost everything, our house was completely destroyed, my grandfather’s garden was destroyed and then my grandmother, who was the closest person in my life, died when I was in third form,” he told the audience.
Dr Keith Rowley, Former Prime Minister
Rowley said up until then, he had never come lower than second in any test at his primary school – Mason Hall Government – or at Bishop’s. He recalled placing 29th in a test with a class of 31 students. “I came 29th and I remember sitting in a class and just daydreaming, having no interest in what was being said and all I remember thinking is, ‘I wonder where my grandmother is now.’”
Rowley recalled going to the post office to collect his report card, after doing “absolutely nothing” during that school term. “When I opened it, I knew I had done badly, but good heavens, third to last, 29th. He said he took the report card to his grandfather’s house and hid it. “Nobody asked for it and they never saw it, and I am there lying on my back in the yard looking up at the clouds and a moment came to me that said if my grandmother knew I was doing that she would be upset. This is not what she wanted. And I got up from being flat on my back staring at the sky.
“That was the moment I got over the grief and I came back to school and reconnected. That must have been the lowest period of my life and, fortunately, I disconnected and reconnected.” Rowley said he empathises with students who experience trauma “because I came that close to flunking out of school in responding to my grandmother’s death.”
THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine
Augustine said he did not experience any major trauma during his years at Bishop’s but recalled struggling with his classes from forms one to three. He said the classes in those days had 40 students and he would often place around 20th in tests. Augustine said that changed in form four.
“Ah switch just turn on out of nowhere, I am enjoying the academics, I am mastering all of the subjects I have chosen, I have gotten past the fact that I was the only one speaking Tobago creole, because oracy was not my strongest field in lower school.”
But he said he often had confrontations with a female student who “found a way to get beneath my skin.” One such confrontation, he said, got physical and resulted in him being suspended for about three days. “That was my only real testing moment. But all of it helps you to build character and appreciate that sometimes even when you are right you can become wrong in your exertion of strength.” Augustine said he was grateful for all of the lessons he learnt at Bishop’s.
“Whether it is the white lines that you dare not walk on or touch, or the fact you don’t ever cross the quadrangle, or that you had to stand outside if you were late for the entire first period. Those things created structure in your life.
“Even if you came into the school and did not have the structure at home or the community, you were guaranteed that there was structure at Bishop’s High. That is what caused us to excel in the end.” Berkley and Archie said they thoroughly enjoyed their years at Bishop’s and also commended the school for its structure and commitment to excellence.