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<DIV id=articleContent style="OVERFLOW: auto; WIDTH: 600px; HEIGHT: 100%"><DIV class=scrolling id=insideDiv style="PADDING-RIGHT: 21px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"><DIV class=HTMLTitle><SPAN id=Ar0400000 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Hyacinth Forde... still teaching after over 40 years </SPAN></DIV><BR style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 5px; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-VARIANT: normal"><BR style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 5px; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-VARIANT: normal"><DIV class=HTMLByline><SPAN id=Ar0400006 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">BY PAT ROXBOROUGH-WRIGHT Editor-at-Large/ Western Bureau </SPAN><BR style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 5px; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-VARIANT: normal"></DIV><BR style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 5px; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-VARIANT: normal"><DIV class=HTMLContent style="OVERFLOW: auto"><SPAN id=Ar0400001 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"></SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">In 1971 when the Holiday Inn Hotel offered Hyacinth Forde a job in public relations, she turned it down, opting instead to take a teaching job at the Cornwall College for Boys in St James </SPAN><SPAN id=Ar0400002 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"></SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">She had just returned from a three-year teaching stint in the Bahamas where her husband, Louis Eugene Allan Forde, an attorney, had been serving in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and thought the job would have given her more time with her two small children, John-Andrew and Marie-Lou. </SPAN><SPAN id=Ar0400003 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"></SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">But the job gave her much more than that. On retirement after 27 years of service to Cornwall College, she had acquired the reputation as one of the best teachers of the English Language and Geography in the school’s history, and had gained a wealth of experience through her interaction with the many young men who moved on to become leaders in the fields of politics, science and business islandwide. </SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">“The tentacles of teaching are very wide... Teaching has been my life, something I have lived for. It was not just about going to get a pay package. Whenever the boys failed, I felt I had failed,” she told the OBSERVER WEST. </SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Today, as the administrator for the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) in St James, Forde is still in the business of education, carrying out her duties with the same passion and flair that led the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) to secure her services as the coordinator for its ‘Meet the People’ programme. “I have been very privileged to have touched the lives of so many people, to have been </SPAN><SPAN id=Ar0400004 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">given a chance to make a small impact on their lives,” she said. </SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">In addition to selling a positive image of Jamaica through the JTB’s programme, a big part of that impact has been through her efforts to impart the English Language to her students. </SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">“The English Language is something that is a part of you. It is unfortunate that in our schools people do not take pride in their speech. I personally feel that if you are careless where your speech is concerned you will be careless with your life too,” she said in cultured tones that recalled a disciplined childhood in Georges Plain, Westmoreland. </SPAN>
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<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">In 1971 when the Holiday Inn Hotel offered Hyacinth Forde a job in public relations, she turned it down, opting instead to take a teaching job at the Cornwall College for Boys in St James </SPAN><SPAN id=Ar0400002 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"></SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">She had just returned from a three-year teaching stint in the Bahamas where her husband, Louis Eugene Allan Forde, an attorney, had been serving in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and thought the job would have given her more time with her two small children, John-Andrew and Marie-Lou. </SPAN><SPAN id=Ar0400003 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"></SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">But the job gave her much more than that. On retirement after 27 years of service to Cornwall College, she had acquired the reputation as one of the best teachers of the English Language and Geography in the school’s history, and had gained a wealth of experience through her interaction with the many young men who moved on to become leaders in the fields of politics, science and business islandwide. </SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">“The tentacles of teaching are very wide... Teaching has been my life, something I have lived for. It was not just about going to get a pay package. Whenever the boys failed, I felt I had failed,” she told the OBSERVER WEST. </SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Today, as the administrator for the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) in St James, Forde is still in the business of education, carrying out her duties with the same passion and flair that led the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) to secure her services as the coordinator for its ‘Meet the People’ programme. “I have been very privileged to have touched the lives of so many people, to have been </SPAN><SPAN id=Ar0400004 style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">given a chance to make a small impact on their lives,” she said. </SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">In addition to selling a positive image of Jamaica through the JTB’s programme, a big part of that impact has been through her efforts to impart the English Language to her students. </SPAN>
<SPAN style="TEXT-JUSTIFY: newspaper; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">“The English Language is something that is a part of you. It is unfortunate that in our schools people do not take pride in their speech. I personally feel that if you are careless where your speech is concerned you will be careless with your life too,” she said in cultured tones that recalled a disciplined childhood in Georges Plain, Westmoreland. </SPAN>
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