Elizabeth English is a woman who knows her worth.
When TygerBurger called the very forthright residential librarian at Portland Primary School for a feature on the library she built, she unabashedly said: “Rather call me next week. I can be your Women’s Day feature.”
The 66-year-old eldest sister of five, mother of three and grandmother of five says being a school librarian is her “second career”.
“Your life doesn’t stop at 60. I know it’s a scary situation when you retire because you don’t know what you are going to do when you wake up but you must use your own initiative today and do things for yourself. I am gracefully, one of the luckiest women because I can make my own choices. The Lord has really blessed me.”
A career boost
English’s first career, pre her retirement, was varied. She worked in hotels, in the food industry and later in sales.
“That was where I picked up that people can’t read,” she said. “I’m talking about matriculants. I’m talking about girls that completed secretarial courses. I noticed when someone picked up an invoice, they read the first three words and the last three words, without comprehension.”
English’s role as librarian started when she was on the governing body of Jamaica Primary from 2015 to 2017. The school gave her a small store room which she cleaned and kitted out as a small library.
“We have a need in our community because people are educated but they are ignorant. So I wanted to put back into the community by opening a library. I made it nice and I had classes with the children and I read stories and I taught them how to write properly because I have beautiful handwriting.”
Later, in 2021, the former principal of Portland Primary School saw the library and asked English to do the same at her school, for a small stipend. English agreed and the principal, who has since retired, sent her on a leadership course.
When English visited the donated building, where she was asked to build a library and found a “raw” space.
“Books were scattered all over the place. Die plek was lelik, dit was morsag, dit was vuil. I worked through the whole June holidays with my grandson and my children and I never looked back,” English said.
Donations
Since then the library has grown to include dozens of shelves full of books, educational resources and computer ports, minus the actual computers, all of which has been donated to the school. English hopes that computers will be donated to the school too, as well as some paint and a scanner.
The library’s shelves however don’t run short. They are in fact so well stocked that English is able to donate books to other schools, but she tries to keep the shelves stocked with books that interest children and those that supplement the curriculum.
“What is so unique,” she said pointing to a white board with notes on Gayton MacKenzie, the minister of arts, sports and culture, “they are going to learn about Gayton MacKenzie with their teacher.
“So I’ve already done research about him. So I will ask them, ‘get me his date of birth’, ‘where he grew up’, ‘who were his parents?’, ‘what work did he do?’, ‘name the gangs where he grew up’, ‘who influenced him?’. These are my questions, it’s got nothing to do with the school. It makes it easier for them because now when the teacher starts her lessons, they know where they are. When the grade 5s do Greek mythology, then I get all those books ready on one side.”
A love for reading
Every class at the school gets a weekly session at the library and English says it is a period that the children look forward to.
“I taught the children to love coming to the library. The library is not only about reading, the library is also about increasing knowledge.
“I believe the child must take a page and turn it and read and you must be able to feel it because when you read a book, you must love it. It puts so much calmness in you. It will take you to places where you would never normally enter.”
On Saturdays, English also teaches extra lessons to children that are struggling. She also hosts small competitions with the pupils, such as spelling bees. However, she’s found that children turn to her for more than just education.
“In the times that our children are living, someone has to remind them what school is about because they don’t look at this as an institution. We looked at it as an institution but to them, this is a safe haven.
“You know what I have become. I haven’t just become a residential librarian. A child will come to me and cry his heart out. I can just listen. Sometimes children just want their parents to listen to them. They don’t want their whole day.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.