Celebrating with the St. Vincent Grammar School

19.SEPT.08

We must celebrate our nation’s oldest secondary school. Per Aspera Ad Astra.

The St. Vincent Grammar School (SVGS) has endured and has toiled and has been able to produce excellence in spite of the vagaries of time, philosophies and personalities.{{more}}

It is the odd past student who is not proud to have earned (by virtue of his performance in the Common Entrance Exam) a place at this prestigious institution. And this pride is justified and well-founded, despite attempts to make present and past students feel as though they need to apologize or that they were bestowed some undeserved privilege by attending or having attended the school.

One of the ironies of this disparaging attitude toward the SVGS is that some of the school’s biggest detractors jump through hoops to ensure that their own sons enter that very institution.

For whether they are prepared to admit it or not, the SVGS has and is still able to provide the most competitive academic secondary environment for boys in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. By dint of hard work and devotion of a distinguished procession of Headmasters and teachers, the boys’ talents and abilities are harnessed, nurtured and directed, placing them on sound footing to go out into the world and make their mark.

The school has been able to produce many of our country’s outstanding citizens over the last one hundred years. Although we agree that they ought to have been outstanding given what had been invested in them, they would not have achieved (some have not) had they not made the effort, exercised discipline, sacrifice and commitment.

The SVGS, like all educational institutions, has to measure its achievement on the basis of what individuals or groups of individuals passing though it have been able to produce. Thus, when the school claims the achievements of prominent citizens as its own or in some way related to it, this is an entitlement that we cannot begrudge it.

As the school commences its second century of achievement, we call on past students to repay their debt of gratitude by proudly and confidently sharing with present students the legacy of which they are a part whenever the opportunity arises. They should also remind the youngsters of their responsibility to ensure that the good name of the school is upheld and that the school’s positive traditions are protected and passed on from generation to generation.

We, therefore, encourage all past and present students, teachers and associates and all friends of the school to come out in their numbers on Sunday and march to the strains of the school song which will ring loud and long. Well done, St. Vincent Grammar School. Per Aspera Ad Astra.