By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 1st March 2019)- Students of the Epworth/Maurice Hillier Memorial Junior School (of grades 5 and 6) recently went on an outing at Zack’s Historical-Cultural Library & Museum located at the Buckley’s Estate as part of the school’s activities for Black History Month.
“We are here at the museum to see if we can connect anything with our past of our black people; people of the past whether the slaves or whoever,” said teacher Aurelstine Warner during a chit-chat with this reporter on Friday 22nd February.
He added: “At our school, we talk about both local and foreign people who have been outstanding. We talk about our national heroes, we talk about other black people who have contributed significantly to our nation and so on. We talk about people in the United States such a Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington; black people who have contributed to the world and their country on a whole.”
Asked what impression he has gotten from the students, Warner replied: “Well, they are excited, they want to know about their own because when they look at the TV generally most times apart from in the music and sports fields such as the NFL, you hardly see black people doing anything else but the children have to know that black people contributed in other areas.”
His colleague Hilton Clarke is of the view that such outings are important for children in general nowadays.
“At this time, it’s sort of critical..it’s important because children nowadays all they engage themselves in is their computers, phones as everything is inside [their homes]; they’re not active and so they shut off everything else…you see them on the streets they cut off everything else so when we bring them out to like these they get to interact with what happened in the past and so it helps to let them know that there was another way of doing things; people enjoyed the outdoors a lot, and most of the time they (the children) come, they are excited, they enjoy the outdoors even though if you leave them to themselves they will stay indoors all the time, so this helps.”
He continued: “ It helps them in their social studies, it helps them in interacting with other people in a different setting and so it opens their minds to a lot of things and how things have progressed from that stage to now the technology is the master driver so they will benefit in a number of ways by coming out to see the exhibits and at least some of the artefacts that have some historical worth.”
As gathered, the school had a committee in place for the activities related to the celebration of Black History Month with a special focus on connecting with the past which included a display at school spotlighting notable black people.
Clarke said the exhibit was mounted “so that the children can have a sense of identity and realise that black people have a lot of value and have contributed not only nationally and regionally but internationally.”
Students also visited the National Museum during the month of February.
Keeper of the library- museum Winston ‘Zack’ Nisbett, better known as the Doctor of Culture, said he was impressed with the interaction of the students.
“I was very much overwhelmed with their questions and answers. They were able to get the whole historical and cultural overview of what the estate achieved in terms of the betterment of the workers through their wages. The inspiration and motivation from these children gave a sense of pride and joy and it was significant because I was able to relay to them about the importance of our history because it’s important that they know where they came from and as to where they are going.; they were thrilled.” “I hope and trust that they were able to galvanise what was taught to them this morning because they’ll be putting it in their school work in terms of from an examination point of view. I was very impressed with them. They asked many questions about the sugar mills, historical leaders, persons who made us what we are today, legacy that was paved through some of them. That was significant. So, all in all it was a good bunch and I want the children to continue to be that inquisitive and willing to learn.”