Sunday, October 25 2009

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” According to Lois Jadunath Beckett, this is how her father, long-serving school teacher, George Carlyle Jadunath, tried to emulate this life, and so set an example for others, but mostly for his children.

“My father was the most generous, kind and loving man I have ever known,” Jadunath Beckett states of the man who once taught eminent calypsonian The Mighty Sparrow and who died last month at the age of 85.

“Husband, father, teacher, anonymous philanthropist and race-horse enthusiast, he enjoyed telling stories to a captivating audience. Smart, intelligent and hard-working, he could have been anything he pursued, but instead, married, raised a family of six, and taught thousands of children all of whom he encouraged to do something productive with their lives, and he was proud of many of them.”

Jadunath was born on May 2, 1924, on the school compound that is presently Mucurapo Girls RC School, in St James. At the time of his birth, this was the original location for St Mary’s Church and Mucurapo Boys’ RC School, where his father was the headmaster.

When he was one year old, the family moved to Boissiere, Maraval, because his father and the headmaster of the school in Boissiere, Jerome Mangatal, made a mutual exchange. Both headmasters were good friends. Carlyle, (better known as Carl), and his family lived in the house right next to the school, and he attended various classes there, whenever there was space for him.

At the age of eight, he attended Belmont Intermediate for one year, then moved on to Nelson Street Boys, where in his final year, he wrote the common entrance exams, and was placed eighth in the entire island of Trinidad. Pretty impressive for someone who only had four years of schooling. He chose St Mary’s College, (CIC), for his high school curriculum where he mastered all his subjects and became friends with sons of other Trinidadians who took great pride in that Catholic institution run by the Holy Ghost Fathers from Ireland.

“St Mary’s was his home away from home from 1935 to1942,” Jadunath Beckett recalled. “He was always an “A” class student and included Greek, Latin, French and Spanish in the subjects he studied. In sport, he excelled at lawn and table tennis, and some of his trophies are still housed there. He had aspirations to become a doctor, but it was economically unfeasible – his family had become too large, nine sisters and two brothers.”

After graduation, he worked briefly at the US Naval Base in Chaguaramas. In 1945, he married Lena Elizabeth Gujur, and shortly after he was asked by Fr O’Donald to teach at Newton Boys School, so he decided to follow his father’s profession and become a teacher. He went to the Teachers’ Training College, and also continued his great love for lawn tennis, winning more trophies. He raised six children.

“He lost his father unexpectedly, and found himself as ‘head of the family’ at a very young age. He supported his mother until she died at age 100, and he deprived himself of many things so that his mother and younger siblings would always have the essentials in life,” says Beckett. He lived the motto, “we are our brother’s keeper” she notes.

Nelson Mandella wrote, “In life, every man has two obligations: Obligations to his family, to his parents, to his wife and children, and he has an obligation to his people, his community and his country.”

“My father fulfilled all of these obligations pure and simple without any fuss,” Beckett says.

“While he was teaching at Newton Boys, he had a weekly concert on Friday afternoons, where the students were encouraged to perform. A student by the name of Francisco Slinger used to continuously sing ‘Red River Valley’, and then one infamous Friday afternoon, said student asked my father, ‘Sir, could I sing a song?’ and my dad replied, “not if it is ‘Red River Valley’, compose your own’, and so he did....this young, talented pupil went on to become the Mighty Sparrow, and well, the rest is history. In 1956, when Sparrow won the Calypso Crown, we happened to be in Woodford Square, and Sparrow proudly came over to my Dad, and said, ‘Sir, I ketch them!’ What a proud moment that was for my father.”

His next challenge was Mucurapo Boys RC School as acting headmaster.

“I remember the profound and astute quotations he wrote on his blackboard each Monday morning, and then erased them on Friday afternoons. Many years later, I began reading the Old Testament and especially The Book of Wisdom, and Proverbs, and realised some of the verses seemed very familiar, and I reached far back into my youth and became aware that he had quietly taken certain passages from these books and was silently influencing his students,” Beckett says.

His next two schools as principal were Mundo Nuevo and Paramin RC in Maraval. He finally retired on April 10, 1981 after thirty-four and a half years of service.

“He received many accolades for his steadfastness and devotion to his profession, and more importantly, he encouraged and assisted many of his students to study and “better themselves”. He opened many doors for them, and there is hardly a person in Trinidad who did not know him,” his daughter asserts.

Jadunath loved the horses so much that he began to study them and their lineage. He eventually took the next step and bought several of them, and they in turn rewarded him with many great prizes. “Solano”, “Chantilly” and “Afternoon Delight” were perhaps the most popular ones that constantly gave fodder to the sports journalists.

“He meticulously balanced parenting, teaching and horse breeding, and fortunately, he did all very well,” Beckett says. “As children, we knew exactly what he demanded of us, and I am certain his students did also, and perhaps, even his horses. This is why he triumphed in all these areas.”