G. Michael Reid laments decision by Grace Primary
Like many people whose job involves the putting of pen to paper — or more accurately finger to keyboard — G. Michael Reid often relies on his childhood experiences for inspiration. Tonight, however, those memories have been disturbed by some negative developments in the world of the arts.
“The Belize Arts Council is busy preparing for its annual Children’s Festival of Arts program which is held each year at the Bliss Institute. The festival is an interesting and arresting array of talent and potential exhibited by children within our primary school system. The event runs throughout the month of May and culminates with the golden nights or what used to be called adjudicators nights. This is where the judges and the audience are treated to encore performances from the best among the lot. The Children’s Festival of Arts has been around for quite sometime and one cannot speak of this event without mentioning the names as Daphne Sheran, Sister Elsa and the late Bernice Yorke. Despite much time and effort on the part of these valiant women however, the original festival faltered and circa 1987, the flame went flat. About five years ago, the Belize Arts Council under the leadership of Beverly Smith-Lopez, picked up the extinguished torch, rekindled the flame and has been running hard ever since. The revival has gone well and the past few years especially, has seen a steady increase in the number of schools participating and an expansion in the variety and quality of art styles presented. A big part of the reason for this success has been the input of Grace Primary School.
I can remember as a child, walking down Cemetery Road on the way to my alma mater Holy Redeemer and feeling sorry for the kids who had to attend the raggedy, almost gauche little school on Amara Avenue. While Holy Redeemer was number one or consistently near the top in all areas in competition, Grace Primary was as consistently near the bottom. Somehow and somewhere down the line, things changed and while we can turn to Holy Redeemer and ask what went wrong, we might very well learn more by asking Grace Primary what went right. Somewhere around 1958 and not even she seems to remember quite when, Gloria Edwards picked up the reigns of Grace Primary and proceeded to work wonders. Grace Primary is today, a paragon of academic excellence and as far as the arts is concerned, is a Triton among the minnows. Grace Primary has for sometime now, dominated the top honors at the Children Festival of Arts, but as this tiny little school that said “I can” and did, has found out, it ain’t easy being number one.
I spoke to Miss Edwards this past week and she informed me that Grace Primary is backing out of this year’s Children’s Festival of Arts. She believes that her children have been the target of unwarranted abuse by antagonist from other schools. And according to a number of staff with whom I spoke, they believe that students from other schools are encouraged and even coaxed into being disruptive when children from Grace Primary are performing. There have been incidents they say, where teachers from other schools have verbally abuse the children of Grace Primary and according to Miss Edwards, the decision to withdraw was made with the consent of parents, teachers and even the children.
While I can understand the rationale behind the decision to withdraw, I do not believe it is the right move and think instead that the Art’s Council should have long since recognized this problem and taken the necessary steps to remedy the situation.
With the Last Word, G. Michael Reid.”
The opinions expressed on the Last Word are those of G. Michael Reid and not necessarily those of Channel Five. Comments are welcome.
