The Grenada Boys Secondary School Hostel: Reminiscing on a boarding school life in Grenada.

By Winston Phillips

The book is about recognition, and about saying 'Thanks' for an educational and life experience at the Grenada Boys Secondary School Hostel in which I, the author and others were grounded during our adolescent years. The book is also about sharing a piece of Grenada's educational history with current generations, another taste, as it were, of Grenada and the Caribbean. The Hostel was 'Grenada's best kept educational secret', shining in academic performance as well as in Sports; and with its boys moving on to excel in their chosen work disciplines. The key to Hostel life was discipline – in study, in play, and in other aspects of social life. The relationship to Hostel obligations was without a baggage of written rules. The Hostel had only one written rule: ‘A breach of common sense is a breach of Hostel rules’. Under the experience, the personal development process was one of character and personalities unfurling under the offerings of the Hostel. “I found a natural comparison in what happens with a nutmeg tree, no stranger to Grenada, as it reveals its treasures of nutmeg and mace. The tree bears a pod which is closed and green when immature. If the pod and its contents are no good, it wrinkles while green and falls to the ground where everything rots. As pods mature they grow in size, they turn yellow and progressively split in two halves to reveal bright red mace ensconced on a dark shiny nut. The open pods then fall to the ground from where they are picked up and another journey begins. Such was my Hostel experience”. The comparison is immortalized in the words of one Hostel Boy, Leon Wells (d): "So many of us came to the Hostel as brash, crude, `ignorant', unhewn base metals, and left as polished gems."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Winston Phillips
• Release date: Mar 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476494517

Winston Phillips

Retired agricultural economist from Grenada. Attended Universities in Jamaica, Trinidad (University of the West Indies), and the USA (Penn State). Wide international experience. Book published in 2010 at 69 years old.

Book preview

The Grenada Boys Secondary School Hostel

Reminiscing on a boarding school life in Grenada

by

Dr. Winston J. Phillips

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2009 Dr. Winston J. Phillips

Your support and respect for this work is appreciated.

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This book is dedicated to the memory of Hostel Boys

George Randolph Earle Mario Bullen

David Lloyd George Fugun Callender

Leon Arthur Byron Hip Wells

and others gone before them; and to the memory of Sir

William and Lady Thelma Branch who

also shaped my life.

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What others are saying:

This book is addressed to a universal audience and is a must read for young people residing an any part of this rapidly changing digital world.

… Everybody’s Magazine

I was absolutely enthralled and enchanted by your book. I was enriched by reading your book.

… Beverly Steele, author, Grenada-A History of its Peoples.

A personal and professional memoir of distinctive quality and significance.

…GEP, Chicago Il

A breach of common sense is a breach of Hostel Rules

Read the above and contemplate the effectiveness of the only written rule at the GBSS Hostel. I don’t think this reviewer will ever recover from the wisdom of the Hostel Rule". Spud, Amazon.

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Book blog-site:

http://www.myboardingschoolblog.net

author’s email:

[e-mail]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1- Introduction

Chapter 2 - The Physical Environment

Chapter 3 – The Regimen of the GBSS Hostel

Chapter 4 – Authority and Authority Figures

Chapter 5 – Relationships

Chapter 6 – Use of Other Resources

Chapter 7 – Major Events

Chapter 8 – So is there a ‘Hostel Thing’?

EPILOGUE

TRIBUTES TO BEACONS

GLOSSARY

Appendix 1 – Pictures Tell Their Own Story

Appendix 2 – The GBSS School Song

Appendix 3 – Our Friendship

Appendix 4 – Two Years Down the Road

Appendix 5 – GBSS Reflections

Appendix 6 – From a Very Special Friend

Endnotes

Foreword

Dr. Winston ‘Bobby’ Phillips has vividly and accurately described life in the Boys’ Hostel as he experienced it during his school days.  It is an authoritative and truthful version.  Indeed, the GBSS Hostel, as it was most affectionately known, was a home away from home for fifty-two GBSS boys for nine months in the year over a five or six year period. The Hostel was a lively and spirit-filled community.  Phillips very aptly described the raison d’etre of this community which was based on spiritual development, mental advancement and physical growth. No wonder then that church-going was compulsory. No boy was exempt. Study periods were seriously adhered to, and no one was allowed to be in his bed after 6 o’clock in the morning when all gathered at the sound of the gong for physical training just outside the school’s Assembly Hall from Monday to Friday.

The Hostel was never fashioned by a litany of rules. In fact the only written rule at the Hostel was a breach of common sense is a breach of Hostel rules.  Boys will always be boys and Phillips, knowing full well that any boy who was caught outside the ‘boundary’ had broken the rules, makes bold to describe some of the escapades in which he and others indulged. Discipline at the GBSS Hostel was of the highest order, and he very carefully selected some high points where boys tried to flout authority.  Some, of course, successfully escaped. Squealing on one another was neither encouraged nor tolerated. Instead, the wrongdoers had to own up.  Good manners, politeness, consideration for others, responsibility, and industry all made up the educational menu provided at the Hostel, much apart from the four meals per day---namely breakfast, lunch tea and dinner.

Phillips himself excelled both in classroom and playing field and he sincerely admits how helpful the Hostel was in preparing him for adulthood.  This book is well worth reading by youngsters as well as by adults who are now heads of families in an increasingly turbulent world.  As for me, while reading the narrative I felt as if I were reliving my days at the Hostel where I lived both as school boy and as Hostel Master.

The enduring friendships coming out of Hostel life finds expression wherever and whenever Hostel Boys meet in any part of the world. I have had the privilege and pleasure of experiencing this, and there is no doubt in my mind that this ‘Hostel thing’ will live on.

Sir Paul G. Scoon.

Acknowledgements

While the sentiments expressed in this main document are essentially mine, I acknowledge comments and insights provided by a few Hostel Boys – Sir Paul Scoon; Leon Wells; Rowley Jeffrey; Nestor Ogilvie and Neville Glean; Gordon Telesford; and Anthony DeCoteau, and others. I am also indebted to Sisters Gabrielle Mason and Phyllis Wharfe (past principals of St. Joseph Convent in Grenada and San Fernando, Trinidad) and to my niece, Ms. Sacha Pierre who read the manuscript and made helpful comments on style and organization. Close school friends, George A. Griffith, (former Grenada Ambassador to Canada and recent Justice of the Peace in Toronto); and Dr. John P. George, M.D., add extended perspectives to the main story.

Over the years, I have had urgings from my family to write it all down. My daughter, Rachel, then a student at the St. Joseph’s Convent tried to understand my Hostel stories in the context of change - the establishment of a single Sixth Form School in Grenada, and the disciplinary ‘freedoms’ that students there seemed to be allowed. My wife has continuously urged me to write about the Hostel experiences before my own expiry date. I dare say that other Hostel Boys may have had similar challenges from their families.

This book covers the period 1953-1960, the period I spent at the Hostel. I sometimes use the phrase ‘during my time’ to refer to that period; but it could as well refer to ‘for my group – 1953-1960’. It is sometimes necessary to make the distinction, because of the inter-group dynamics at the Hostel. There were global groups and sub-groups, and sometimes the incidence of particular event, while occurring in my time would have affected some groups differently. Thus while I posit that the general patterns and lessons over the decades before and after may be very similar, I acknowledge that the intensity of the experiences may not be the same for all groups over the same period as it might have been for my group.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

This story is a reflection on a boarding school life in Grenada. Grenada is located at the southern end of the chain of English speaking islands between Florida and Venezuela. The focus of the book is the GBSS Hostel, a boarding arm of the Grenada Boys Secondary School (GBSS). The period of the story is 1953-1960, during which years I was a member of the Hostel.

Grenada is a three-island state comprising the islands of Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique, and at 133 square miles is one of the smallest independent countries in the world. Its population is currently about 93, 000 persons. Grenada gained its independence from Britain on February 7, 1974.

Map of Grenada

The country has had its regional and world moments. The most recent was a 1979 bloodless coup led by a young lawyer, Maurice Bishop, which ousted the then Prime Minister, Eric Mathew Gairy. Historically, this was the first coup in the English speaking Caribbean. On October 19, 1983, Maurice Bishop, then Prime Minister, and some of his Cabinet colleagues were executed by the Grenada People’s Revolutionary Army. Six days later the island was invaded by the United States armed forces. Grenada reverted to a system of parliamentary government in 1984, and has continued this process since.

As the seat of the Government of the Windward Islands in the forties and fifties, Grenada was the central island of the Windward Islands, which included St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Dominica. Grenada’s daily affairs were the responsibility of an Administrator who was head of the Executive and Legislative Councils. Both these Councils included nominated and elected officials. Grenada’s central position as the seat of the Windward Islands contributed much to its growth in educational and political areas. The period 1950-1960 was socially and politically dynamic [1] and experienced the build-up to the country’s independence, and the exploring of various forms of integration with surrounding countries.

Except for Agriculture, the major forms of economic activity, including export of agriculture produce, were concentrated in the capital, St. George’s. General conditions and infrastructure in the rural areas were poor in comparison to St. George’s. Tanteen, in St. George’s, hosted a substantial part of the educational infrastructure of Grenada in the early fifties. This included the GBSS and GBSS Hostel; the Girls Anglican High School; the Teacher Training College; and the Technical School.[2]

In the early fifties, the GBSS was one of four secondary schools in Grenada. Two of these were "boys’’ schools, two were girls: the Grenada Boys Secondary School (GBSS), the Presentation Boys College (PBC); the St. Joseph Convent (girls) and the Anglican High School (girls). All the schools were located in St. George’s except for a sister St. Joseph Convent which was located in St. Andrews.

The political interest in girls’ education was always moot. This notwithstanding, in the mid-fifties the successful establishment of a coeducational facility the St. Andrews Anglican Secondary School provided greater opportunities for girls. Later on in the period several more secondary schools were established as coeducational schools.

The GBSS (then known as the Grammar School), opened in 1885, located at Church Street, In 1911 it was relocated to the center of St. George’s at Melville Street. From the time of the founding of the school, the notion of a boarding facility was recognized. This led to permission being granted to the Headmaster to accept boarders at his home for a fee. Over time, increasing numbers of rural students emphasized the necessity for a single boarding facility. The Hostel was opened in 1946 opposite the school. The concept must have drawn the interest of local business. A significant contribution to the buildings furnishings was made by a well known Grenadian businessman, Mr. S.A. Francis.[3]

A significant feature of inter-school relationships at the time was the intense competition among them. Limited school spaces and the demands of emerging rural areas was the first cause. Entry into secondary school was very competitive, and nowhere more so than in the competition for a limited amount of government scholarships. Whether as students we were aware of it or not, we were competing at all levels of our school lives – in entry, in class, in games, in identification, and between schools. This, I believe, spurred in those years achievement beyond the minimal.

The two Boys schools were on opposite hills. The GBSS was located in the South-East (Tanteen), and the PBC in the South-West (on Cemetery Hill). This physical counter-positioning was in itself regarded in a competitive vein. A few weeks after arriving at the GBSS, a fight between a GBSS boy and a PBC boy took place in Tanteen. One boy was physically injured. This type of event never occurred again during my school years, but it provided a stark introduction to the intensity of the competition between the two schools for almost everything, but especially in scholarship and sports. As an essential part of the GBSS, the Hostel was naturally a party in that competition.

The GBSS Hostel

The Hostel was closed in 1973 at a time of growth and expansion of the secondary education plant in Grenada. By that time, almost all Parishes had built or were building one or more secondary schools. This reduced the necessity of all rural students seeking a secondary education at urban schools [4] Prior to 1965, all schools had a Sixth Form from which students pursued the Higher School Certificate. The educational planners decided to establish in St. George’s a single Sixth Form school called the Institute for Further Education (IFE). There, all secondary students finished their senior years towards the acquisition of a General Certificate of Education (GCE) A-level education. The IFE evolved into the T.A. Marryshow Community College (TAMCC), where students can now pursue Diplomas, Certificates and Associate degrees in different fields. The IFE and TAMCC were physically located at the GBSS Hostel site.

When the news of closure of the Hostel arrived, I felt a great sense of loss. I am sure other Hostel Boys did too, as the Hostel is an intrinsic a part of our psyche. This is what fuels the phenomenon that wherever two or three Hostel Boys are together, we talk over (and over!) about the days at the Hostel. We relive events, occurrences, performances, prefects, sports, girlfriends, Hostel Masters and Hostel Matrons, the kitchen staff, studying, exam results, Literary League, Church, matinee and movies, pranks, ‘calizone’, getting strokes, The Spout, The Flat, The Top, standing in the corner or on a chair, friendly and not so friendly relationships, fights … the list goes on, and is never exhausted.

I am quite sure that there are many wives and friends who have been unwilling audiences to those indulgences. On behalf of all Hostel Boys, I express our thanks. But I trust that they understand that because the Hostel was home for nine months of each of the six or so years spent in obtaining a secondary education, it lives on in our hearts and minds, and that our way of sharing that life is in talking about it. It may also be a way of validating ourselves and our current patterns of behavior.

I often ponder what a different life I might have had if I had attended the Presentation Boys’ College! Everything pointed in that direction. Firstly, through parental agreement the boys