Many wonderful years at Ocho Rios High and other institutions changing lives
By: Sugar Ray Thomas
With over four decades of sterling service in her career, Laurice Binns-Purcell has made education her lifelong priority. She has been instrumental in critically molding the minds of several of the nation’s youth in their primary, secondary and tertiary level education in her teaching career that spanned 44 years.
The time she has spent in influencing lives has not been only as a teacher, but also as a mother, counsellor and a committed Christian whose life is guided by the mantra ‘service to God and fellow men’.
Many of her past students describe her as a teacher who was their ‘mother’ and the classic example of an excellent teacher, inside and outside of the classroom. Looking back, Mrs. Binns-Purcell explained in an interview with The Times that it has been all successes for her in her illustrious career and though enjoying retirement, she would do it all over again. “It has been more success for me than challenges and it is because of that why I’d be a teacher all over again. Despite the indiscipline, I love what I did because I developed a good relationship with all my students. I love teaching and I love people,” she explained.
Born Laurice Binns in Claremont, Hanover, she received her early education at Jericho Primary and Brownsville Primary Schools. Her mother, Araminta Binns, a teacher and her father, Isaac Binns, a district constable, taught her and her five siblings the values of life, while the community played a vital role in also passing on values and morals. Her mother though was the one who greatly impacted on her love for teaching. “My mother was a teacher and all of us had to go to school and church. The importance of education was instilled in us from a very early age and we grew up with a lot of values and morals,” explained Mrs. Binns-Purcell.
However, her journey in education did not start in the parish of her birth, Hanover, but when she went to further her education at the Carron Hall Vocational School in Carron Hall, St. Mary at the age of fifteen.
Education journey
“After graduating from Carron Hall Vocational School in July of 1969, I went straight into teaching. I became a pre-trained teacher at Retreat Primary School in the parish and shortly after I enrolled at the Shortwood Teachers College in 1972. I graduated in 1974 with my trained teachers’ certificate and did my internship at Ocho Rios High (then Secondary),” Mrs. Binns-Purcell explained.
A position became available at the institution and, like they say, the rest became history for Laurice Binns-Purcell as it was at that juncture that her over 30 year association with Ocho Rios High School would begin.
She moved through the ranks as a classroom teacher to a grade supervisor, dean of discipline and finally vice principal in 2009. She has taught various subjects, including Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Music, but Visual Art is the subject that she has been most passionate about. “I just love art. Art is like my baby. I love working with my hands and I find it so easy to express with my mind,” she explained.
Moving through the ranks at Ocho Rios High School, from a teacher to chief disciplinarian and a leader in her role as vice-principal, has never affected her relationship with her students. “I’ve always enjoyed a very good relationship with my students, so it was not very difficult. They respected me, they loved me and they appreciated me… Even my own children are jealous of the relationship I have with my past students; my boys always want a hug and my girls too. I am so happy that I have touched their lives in a positive way,” boasted Mrs. Binns-Purcell.
She has not only taught at the secondary level, but has also lectured at the tertiary level. She lectured in Art Appreciation at the Moneague College between 1989 and 1991, where she prepared teachers for the upgrading programme in art. She has also lectured at the International University of the Caribbean (IUC) (2009-2010) and at the Port Maria Campus of the Moneague College (2012-2013) in Art Appreciation. She also lectured at Bethel Bible College.
Over the years, she has upgraded her qualifications by obtaining a Diploma in Visual Art Education from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in 1985 and a Bachelor of Science degree in Guidance and Counselling from Western Carolina University in 2002.
Hallmarks of her education career
Laurice Binns-Purcell has several hallmarks of her education career, but none was more important than when, between 1991 and 1992, she was selected as a teacher to participate in the Commonwealth Teachers Programme to represent Jamaica at the King Edward VII School in Sheffield, England. She taught craft design and technology for a year and this experience introduced her to a new culture and teaching style.
As vice principal, Mrs. Binns-Purcell also directed and led the Career Advancement Programme (CAP) at Ocho Rios High School for two years, which was a programme dedicated to students who were not performing well academically. She has also supervised the painting of the mural at the main entrance to the Ocho Rios High School.
Mrs. Binns-Purcell’s hard work and dedication to education has not gone unrecognized as she was awarded in 2000 for twenty-five years of faithful service to Ocho Rios High School. In 2006, she was the recipient of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Golden Torch Award for 37 years of dedicated service to education.
“Many educators have influenced my career such as V. B. Ashton, Mavis Irwin, and Monica McIntyre. Mrs. McIntyre has especially left an indelible mark on my life and I learned so much from her,” she explained.
She is also the recipient of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) silver and bronze awards for textiles.
Life away from education
After retiring from Ocho Rios High School, Mrs. Binns-Purcell spent a brief period as the academic director at the Northgate High School in Exchange, St. Ann in 2013.
Her life away from the classroom has been very successful. She has three children; Kareen Purcell-Bourne, Marsha Kimberly Purcell and Kadian Purcell. She also has six grandchildren.
Mrs. Binns-Purcell explained that she is also very passionate about her relationship with God and is a member of the New Testament Church of God in Ocho Rios. She also serves as a member of the church’s public relations team. In addition, she is a member of the Jamaica Cancer Society and Jamaica Beach Citizens Association, a community citizens association in Tower Isle, St. Mary where she resides.
She also serves as a member of the Ocho Rios branch library art sub-committee and a member of the Northgate Youth Development Foundation (NYDF) since 2008. She also is a motivational speaker at various church and social functions.
Her interests include interior decorating, handicraft, travelling, reading, socializing and counselling. She explained that counselling is her other love. “I’m always counselling; it is like my other love. I live by the manta ‘service to God and my fellow men’ and that is why I can never charge anything for the counselling I’ve done,” she explained.
Advice to teachers
With her 44 years experience in the classroom, Mrs. Binns-Purcell believes that teachers today need to evaluate their conduct in the classroom and remember their role is to shape the lives of the future generation. “We have to look introspectively at ourselves. Teachers are not like how teachers were before. We always dressed appropriately for work. Teachers don’t dress appropriately now and I have seen them. Some of the indiscipline in the classroom is due to some of us teachers causing it on ourselves, because we as teachers are role models and once students see these things, they say it is ok so I can do it too,” she explained.
“So I would advise teachers to go back to the basics and remember that as an individual, when I’m serving the community, I’m preparing the lives of the other generation.”
