George Lamming. Image: www.english.emory.edu
If the vision of regional unity is to become a reality, it must be fostered at the primary school level.
This was the view expounded by renowned author and professor, Dr. George Lamming as he delivered remarks at the official opening of the George Lamming Primary School in Welches, St. Michael, recently.
According to Dr. Lamming, “the primary school is not only the first, but also the most important foundation on which the entire edifice of learning is constructed”. He stressed that it was therefore at this stage, that the most vital aspects of education should take place.
“It is here at this level of initiation that we must engage in an area of education that is very casually neglected. It is the education of feeling…the nurturing of a consciousness to respond sympathetically to a world of people and customs that are different from those we have known…to approach the other always with respect,” he stressed.
Lamenting on the past failures at regional integration, Dr. Lamming emphasised the role of the primary school in “healing old wounds”.
“We can heal these fractures in our regional relations if we start from the base of the primary school to understand the history which produced them….For it is at the base of the primary school that we must nurture this feeling that the regional unification of our institutions is the only reliable guarantee for any survival that has meaning and dignity,” he said.