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Gospel According to Glasford

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The Integrity Principle
 
Inspired by Psalm 26 and Romans 1:20-24. Written by Perryette Peets

A tribute to Mr. Edwin Glasford
Basseterre High School
The Emancipation Comprehensive Education System

With exquisite delight | proclaim my privileged membership in the
historic 1968 First Form Class 1B, Basseterre High School (BHS). Our
cohort is the first fruits of emancipated Comprehensive Education. Also,
we were the last selection by secondary school entrance examination.
Otherwise known as eleven-plus exam.
 
Attending High School in town, Basseterre, was a cultural revolution for
me, a small country boy from Challengers Village, and Trinity
Government Primary School. That everyone wore shoes to school was
mind blowing. But the most intriguing upheaval was the large number
of subjects and teachers. Even the subjects were mixed up. Practical
subjects were morphed into technical subjects. Arithmetic and algebra
joined up with other topics to make a new subject, mathematics. In
primary school free-hand sketching was called drawing. In high school
it was expanded to include painting and called art. However, drawing in
high school was not free hand. It was Technical Drawing which
encompassed what was geometry in primary school and two new
subjects: drafting (graphics in today’s lingo) and architecture.
 
Mr. Edwin Glasford was Head of the Technical Drawing Department.
And Mr. Sam Franks was teacher for my class, 1B. Apparently, it was
the custom that Mr. Franks would grade test papers of Mr. Glasford’s
students and vice versa. So it was that immediately after a particular
test Mr. Glasford sat on the edge of the corridor adjacent the Technical
Drawing Room and bordering the play field. He was there grading our
test papers. The technical drawing room was located at the southern extreme of the southern wing of the main building of the Eastern
Campus BHS. In 1967 the Girls High School and the Grammar School
were merged into the BHS. The premises of the former Girls High
School became Western Campus BHS. The premises of the former
Grammar School became Eastern Campus BHS.
 
It was there on the southern end, east corridor, Eastern Campus BHS
that Mr. Glasford sat grading 1B’s performances on the just concluded
test. Naturally, we gathered around. Asquith Williams and Leary Cagey
and several others. Mr. Glasford was no-nonsense, but vulnerable to
occasional wry smiles and dry chuckles. Seamless but not starched.
 
Apparently, he utilised grading test papers in the presence of the
candidates as teaching opportunity. So, he allowed us to observe the
process and listen his comments as he perused our papers. Whilst
perusing my paper he exclaimed, ‘oh this one got it!’ He was referring to
an exercise that required several dissections with the compass to
construct a specified angle. The task was not correctly performed on
test papers prior to mine. ‘Who is this?’ he continued, ‘Who is Peets?’
Asquith pointed and Mr. Glasford roundly commended me.
 
I was pleased by his praise but I grasped the opportunity to enquire
why he had not awarded full marks for the previous, much easier task.
Which was to construct a line adjacent and perpendicular to the
horizontal. To my query Mr. Glasford firmly retorted, that line is not
perpendicular. But see there, I countered, the sign says 90
degrees. Yes, he asserted, the sign says right angle. But it is not, by
measurement. Your drawing lacks integrity.
 
I had to shut up. He was right. I was not diligent in taking due care to
perfect my drawing. I ought to have availed myself of the fail-safe tools
and techniques to construct the right angle; a straight edge for drawing
lines; and, the compass for scribing dissections. Proper use of tools and technique bestows licence to insert the sign that flags the presence and
disposition of the cardinal angle. Instead, I presumptuously surmised
that the flag was sufficient. It was not. The sign was a false flag.
 
That cardinal, integrity principle is indelibly inscribed in the sanctum of
my human being. Applying it works perfectly. For instance, a few years
ago Mr. Glasford telephoned for permission to enter my property to
assess its value in pursuance of a claim by one of his clients.
Respectfully, | declined his request because, I explained, his client’s
claim was bogus. It lacked integrity. He understood.
 
The following account further illustrates that keeping integrity to
properly instituted authority is the pragmatic choice. Moses, a principal!
Bible character confessed that he was uncircumcised in lips. Reflect
that indeed he was un-circumscribed in speech and conduct. Moses
was prone to presumptuous impetuosity. It plagued his life story and
culminated in failure to achieve his ultimate objective of entering the
promised-land with his people, Israel. God penalized Moses for gross
misconduct. Congruently, Mr. Glasford penalised me for reckless
negligence.
 
Contrast Moses and me with Noah, another principal Bible character.
Noah was divinely bestowed with advanced, detailed knowledge of
cataclysmic climate change and a strategic survival plan. Furthermore,
Noah’s intellectual endowments obliged him to employ al! his resources
to benefit his fellow women and men as much as himself. Accordingly,
he was yoked with both the technical responsibility of constructing the
vessel of survival and the moral responsibility to broadcast awareness
of the imminent danger and how to access the means of survival. A
third, implied, equally important but personal and private responsibility
required Noah to cultivate poise and balance which are essential for
efficient carriage of the said yoke of dual public obligations to his God and fellow human beings. Faithfully, Noah shouldered the weighty
terms of his covenant for survival. The Bible relates that all that Noah
was instructed, he did just so.
 
Mention of Noah’s diligence invokes the most poignant of my integrity
lessons, as follows. Gospel according to Glasford affirms the evident
truth that the numerical arrangement of the conventional analogue
clock-face lacks integrity. The figure one (1) is not circumspectly
positioned perpendicular to the horizontal. At the top where twelve
(12) is. Consequently, all the figures are misplaced. And are not in
congruity with natural realty. For this reason, conventional
measurement: science, mathematics, is also not in congruity with
natural, digital measure. Reflect that time and timing are ubiquitous to
all measurement theories and techniques.
 
Incredulous as it may seem, today’s global problems are rooted in the
said incongruity. Logically, it follows that the confusion between reality
and convention could be resolved by circumspection of the analogue
clock- face. This simple upward adjustment is license to flag the
cardinal, arithmetic logic that there are thirteen (13) hours on the
analogue clock. Not the conventional twelve (12). Provided that the
method of arithmetic circumnavigation complies with natural logic by
starting at one (1), and ending at one (1). Then logically, the thirteen-
hour clock face transcribes into twenty six (26) hours a day. And a year
transcribes to 364 days; 4 Seasons @ 91 days; 13 months @ 28 days;
and 52 weeks @ 7 days.
 
From the foregoing it is safe to conclude that for contractual
constructive purposes Politics and Law, Science and Technology are
necessary. But they are deficient and dysfunctional when they are not
circumscribed to rational Theology and faith-based Worship.
Furthermore, given that Nature is a super abundance of creative
processes, tools and techniques irrational theology and impure worship
are inexcusable.
 
Dedicated to Sirs, Edwin and Samuel, with much respect and love.

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