Determined to teach and enjoying it even as vice principal at community college
Mary Simmonds has loved teaching for almost all her life and chose it over nursing even though that went against the wishes of her father.Her love for teaching is centered on the people she teaches. She is always pushing them to be the best they can be and for them to achieve the most.Her time is spent in influencing lives not just as a teacher but also as a mother, a committed Christian and an ordained minister of religion. Many of her past students describe her as the classic example of an excellent teacher, inside and outside the classroom. Her wits, vivaciousness, love for humanity and passion for the holistic development of her students and people around her are unquestionable.Mary Elizabeth Nelson Simmonds has an undisguised love for teaching. It’s a passion she believes she developed as a young child, growing up at Gillette Street, in Linstead, St. Catherine.Many of her teachers, at Linstead Primary and St. Jago High school, have also contributed to that passion and burning desire to be in the classroom.
Her will to become an educator was so strong, that even when her late father, Simeon, insisted after high school that she should study to be a nurse and he withheld financial support she disobeyed. She was not perturbed.
“From I was a child I wanted to teach, after O’ Levels my father wanted me to become a nurse. He was determined that I became a nurse and I said no…no I am not going to be a nurse and he said you have to be a nurse and I said I am not going to be a nurse.”“I just wanted to teach,” she said adding that her late mother Pearline Clarke was very supportive of her decision. It’s a decision she has not regretted and she sees no other profession that would suit her better than being in a classroom.
Education journey
Fresh out of the University of West Indies where she obtained her degree, Mrs Simmonds started at the Brown’s Town Community College, teaching Spanish and English at O’ and A’ Levels.
After some time in the classroom she went back to university and obtained a post graduate diploma in education and also her Masters degree in Education Administration. After UWI, she applied for three jobs in St. Ann and was called by the college. After two successful years in teaching, and with preparation for her marriage to husband Baron, she went back to St. Catherine and taught at her alma mater, St. Jago High school for 17 years. She has been married for almost 33 years.During her years at St. Jago, she made very significant impact on the lives of the students, moving from a classroom teacher to the post of acting vice principal. Her Spanish and English classes were always exciting and fun. “Spanish was my major passion, to the extent that when I left St. Jago in 1997, we had recorded a 100 per cent pass in A’ Level Spanish throughout those years. I had students who passed Spanish and failed English,” she said.Mrs. Simmonds explained that she has always pushed her students towards achieving their best in whatever they do. “I was extremely firm to the point that students were sometimes afraid of me at St Jago.”She also taught at York Castle High School for a year in 1997 and for that year, the school, for the first time in its history, received an award for Spanish at the CSEC level.
Then she was back at the community college as a vice principal in 1998. The position came with new responsibilities and challenges. Probably, the most challenging was being able to get some of the students to show more interest in their educational and personal development including deportment.
“You have to try to impress on them that (the uniform) it’s not just a uniform, but its training for the real world. I also encouraged them to take part in co-curricular activities,” she said, pointing out the need for students to develop new skills.
As one of two vice principals now at the college, Mrs. Simmonds, who has been in charge of academics and administration at the institution, still teaches Spanish at the CAPE level. She admits that she loves that interchange with her students. “Until we recognize the value of education, the value is that it is invaluable, then you will never be able to appreciate the learning opportunities that you are getting as students and I feel that as teachers we need to learn from our students too.”
Her love for teaching and Spanish too, seemed to have positively influenced two of her children who are teachers of Spanish at St. Hilda’s and Westwood. Another of her children is a teacher of Mathematics.
Mrs Simmonds explained that she has a passion for languages and she regrets not studying French at the university.
Family has been a very important aspect of her life. She has been married for 33 years. She also has two children who are in the medical profession, one is in medical school and the other is doing internship. Her eldest child is an accountant and her youngest, “her baby”, who she jokingly describes as her blessing plus tax, is in grade four at Brown’s Town Primary.
Her husband who is a pastor has been extremely supportive of her and the children.
FAMILY
“Family time for me is important,” Mrs Simmonds explained.
Mrs. Simmonds is known to be a very firm individual, and even her children will tell you how firm she is. “I think I am firm, but there is fun time, we play together as a family but when it’s time for serious work, it has to be work,” she added.
She generally loves children and often looks out for the best interest of other people’s children, especially those labeled as truants.
She believes that is something she got from her mother, who cared for many children in their St. Catherine community. She explained that although her family was considered poor, people would look to her mother for support. She has three siblings by her mother and four brothers by her father. She explained that she and her siblings have a close bond.
“Life in Linstead was extremely quiet. Yes we were considered poor, but my home was the center of activities for a number of young people, especially from my church. They would come to my home sometimes to see me, my brother my other siblings, but more so for my mother’s cuisine,” she said, explaining that her mother was an excellent cook who baked very well.
Her mother was also looked to by the elderly for support and so very early in Mrs. Simmonds’ life she learned to help care for the elderly. She said washing their clothes, cleaning, as well as taking meals, sometimes three times per week to their homes, was something she enjoyed doing. She said she has gained a lot of wisdom from the elderly.
An important area of volunteerism she enjoyed was teaching at the JAMAL classes at Linstead Primary in the evenings after returning from school.
CHILDHOOD IN LINSTEAD
She recalled some very fun days in Linstead, although she grew up without having a television set and the radio that was only turned on for the news or other special programmes. Her mother couldn’t afford to buy the newspapers, but a neighbor would stock the ones he bought and she would spend weekends reading them all, and in order.
Most of her time was spent at home, school and church. She said church was an important aspect of her life, so much so that she attended three Sunday schools each Sunday. During the summer, she would go to all the Vocational Bible Schools in the Linstead environs, once the dates didn’t clash.
Today, Mrs. Simmonds is not only the pastor’s wife at the Apostolic Church at Spicy Grove in St. Ann, but she is also an ordained minister. At church, she has worked with every department and leads the women’s ministry.
She has also taken special interest in the lives of residents in the Spicy Grove / Chester communities, sensitizing many parents about the importance of their children having a good education. Through her influence, a number of young people from her church are now involved in education.
She also avails herself to assist children with their academic work, even to the tertiary level.
This is something she explained she has been doing for many years, even while she taught at St. Jago and York Castle she would provide extra lessons, free of cost, to ensure her students performed well.
She also spends a great deal of time getting people at school and in the church and in her community to understand the importance of not only having academic and social development, but also spiritual development.
Mrs. Simmonds explained that although her parents lived apart, they were great influences in her life.
“God is the center of all that I do; one of my maxims is that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Mrs. Simmonds’ contribution to education and community development, as well as the positive impact she has had on so many lives, even those written off by many, makes her a true Woman of Worth.
