A JAMAICAN CHILDHOOD. PT.7 - THE STICK AND CARROT OF LEARNING.

The house in which Shaka was born and brought up

In this part, Shaka recalls some of the more pleasurable and rewarding times he had at school in Hillside, even with the fear of being beaten constantly lurking in his consciousness or subconsciousness

Notwithstanding his fear associated with being beaten by his teachers, on the whole Shaka’s recollection is that his school life was not very bad. He did not see himself as being popular at school, although he had some close friends, some of them looking to him to assist them with some subjects, and him looking to them to assist him with others. Shaka recalled that he liked doing arithmetic, but was not good at algebra. He liked doing essays, general knowledge, including learning about who were the head of state of the Commonwealth countries, reading and comprehension, and art and geology. 

He recalled cutting coco stalk and dipping it into ink made from berries and making imprinted shapes on white sheets of paper. Shaka recalled that, except for the threat of beatings from his teachers, associated with his poor grasp of some subjects, or failure to complete his homework, he really enjoyed learning about different things, and, most of all, getting ticks, good, and very good, for work done correctly.

The now derelict school which Shaka attended.


Shaka recalled that he was not good at sport, and, during the field events the school held in playing field it had permission from the owner to use, he would take part in the running, relay, long jump and high jump events, but lacked the pace and the stamina, which resulted in him being the last or amongst the stragglers.

He enjoyed playing cricket with the school, but, again, he was not amongst the best, either in batting, bowling or fielding; all of which he did. That, of course, did not prevented Shaka from, surprisingly, taking the odd wicket, scored the occasional boundaries, and taking a couple of catches,

As well as sports days and playtimes, school meals were another favourite of his, although he can also recalled times when some of the older children would have to help to cook the food, due to the unreliability of some of the local people employed to cook. 




Man eating mango in front of Janga Gully, while standing on land which was once owned by Shaka's family.

Shaka left school at the age of 15, which was the school-leaving age, without any academic qualifications. Having been prepared with extra lessons from one of his favourite teacher, Mr Barrett, Shaka took the Eleven Plus examination in Seaforth, but he did not passed it. Shaka, however, does recall that he won many prizes as some of his school’s annual prize giving evening events, for subjects such as religious education, arithmetic, essays, etc. He recalled having won a Bible and a maths book, amongst other prizes, for his classes. 

One of Shaka’s recollection of happier times he had in his childhood, was the sense of pride he felt when he dressed up in his smart school uniform, with his khaki short trousers and his khaki shirt with its lapel. As well as the toys his mother bought him and the books of birds and animals she brought back when she returned from England in 1962.