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Beloved SoJaCS lecturer
By Camille Hunte
Mention the name Earl Best to any student of the Ken Gordon School of Journalism and Communication Studies( SoJaCS) and you will get a mixture of reactions. Some will express disdain, having failed to attain the notoriously elusive“ A” grade in any of his classes. Those who have yet to experience his unique teaching style will express fear, having heard horror stories from those who have. Those who have managed to earn above 90 per cent in courses taught by Mr Best will express pride and a feeling of accomplishment. As one student put it:“ When yuh get ah A in an Earl Best class, yuh know yuh reach. Yuh have bragging rights fuh life!”
Mr Best has become a legend walking the halls of KGSOJACS. Regardless of their reactions, all students will express a level of respect and admiration for the man who has been a part of the institution for over a decade, and touched many lives in the process.
‘ A lifetime of teaching’
Mr Best officially retired in January, eleven years after becoming a part of the SOJACS family. At present, you can still find him in a classroom, teaching his last Fundamentals of Reporting class. This will be his final semester. Though he joined SOJACS in 2006, the 67-year-old has had a long career in education, teaching his first class at his alma mater, Queen’ s Royal College( QRC), in 1969. He was just 19 years old. Fluent in French and Spanish, he returned to QRC in 1974, where he taught those subjects until the end of 1992, with a hiatus from 1979 – 1982 to pursue studies in France. He spent two brief stints teaching French at Holy Name Convent before settling in at SOJACS to teach English, Communication and Journalism.
‘ Journey into Journalism’
Mr Best had a second career. In the years that he wasn’ t teaching, he spent his time in the field of sports journalism. His first stories were written for the notice board in QRC. He soon graduated to writing for the Tapia in the early 1970’ s. In 1992, he left teaching to join the Guardian Newspaper as the de facto sports editor, leaving that job in 1996 to join the Express Newspaper where he stayed until being terminated in 2002.
From then, he worked at the Trinidad and Tobago Review as Copy Editor until being offered a full time position at SOJACS. But teaching has always been his first passion. Mr Best said he never really saw himself anywhere else but in a classroom.
“ I have no idea. I don’ t think I ever chose it; it came naturally.”
Those who have had a class with Mr Best know two things are likely to happen randomly.
The first is that he is known to spontaneously begin speaking in French, which is exactly what happened when asked what advice he had for those hoping to follow in his career path.
“ Lisez, lisez toujours; il en reste toujours quelque chose,” he said. It means:“ Don’ t ever stop reading; the benefits stay with you forever.” The second thing is he will remind you he attended QRC.
He is a proud QRC“ old boy” and makes sure everyone knows it. So it is not surprising that his best memories in the teaching field are from his time at QRC. In fact, he says he aims to replicate the QRC atmosphere in his teaching by“ showing people how to think rather than what to think, filling empty faces and touching lives.”
He shared one of his best memories at SOJACS:“ The first time I administered a Fundamentals of Reporting exam at NLC and I told the students that they were not required to remain in the classroom, not one student moved,” he said.“ I remain convinced that their brains had been so fried by the rigidity of the secondary school and other exam protocols that they did not properly process the information I had provided. But I remember it fondly because I felt it was a watershed moment, an important breakthrough in liberal education, which is what education, by definition, should be.”
‘ Tough as nails’
Even Mr Best knows the reputation he has earned at Ken Gordon School of Journalism and Communication Studies as one of the strictest, most difficult to please lecturers. He has been criticised as being a“ perfectionist,” he noted. But he is unapologetic about it.
“ Tertiary education is serious business and students should be required to produce high quality work if they are to be rewarded with high grades,” he said.“ I believe in what I do and I am therefore able to maintain a clear consistency of standards. I think some people respect me because they can see that I stand in a serious way for something.”
He believes in being honest with students about the quality of their work.“ I pull no punches and I tell them the truth. I call a wheel a wheel, always have, always will; it’ s the best way to teach and, I think, the Best way.”
But Mr Best expressed disappointment with the standard of journalism in Trinidad and Tobago and even in the role of SOJACS in improving it. For improvement in journalism, there must first be improvement in education, he said. He believes the secondary school system places too much emphasis on teaching students what to think, rather than how to think.
He hopes to be remembered by his students for doing his job well. Asked what he plans to do after retirement, Mr Best said jokingly,“ live forever.” Certainly, he will live forever in the hearts and minds of the many students he has taught.
The Caiman Vybe sought comments from some students who reflected on their experiences being taught by the legendary Mr Best and what they learned from him.
Caiman Vybe | Volume 1, No. 1 | December 9, 2017. 10