By Gladstone Thurston,Bahamas Information Services
FREEPORT, Grand Bahama — In a moving ceremony that showcased two Bahamian publications, the Minister of Education's Book Club was officially launched at Jack Hayward High School here last Thursday.
Jack Hayward High is the first Family Island school and the second Bahamian high school to embrace the programme.
"We have started something that we hope will transcend Grand Bahama and spread throughout The Bahamas," said the principal, Benjamin Stubbs.
"The children here have a passion for reading. We hope that through their interest and their development in reading they can also improve their academic standards."
Through February, required reading for the Club are Beulah Richmond's 'Anancy and Friends'; 'Living in the Light of Hope: A Nation Speaks of HIV/AIDS'; and Jamaica Kincaid's 'Lucy'.
Education Minister Alfred M Sears noted that it was the "power of the written word" that sustained him during his "painful sojourn" at the Boys Industrial School, an institution for delinquent youngsters.
"Had I not taken the decision in the Boys Industrial School to make reading a central part of my daily activity," he said, "more than likely I would not have made it through. I would not have been able to accomplish my dreams.
"The more you read the more likely you will write. Tell your story."
Minister Sears was accompanied by Permanent Secretary Cresswell Sturrup, Deputy Director of Education Cecil Thompson, Deputy Director of Education Patricia Collins, Assistant Director of Education Damaris Thompson, and District Superintendent Hezekiah Dean.
The school's patron, Frances Singer-Hayward, threw her "full support" behind the book club. She is the wife of Sir Jack Hayward, chairman of the Grand Bahama Development Company, after whom the school is named.
"I told Minister Sears I will support this programme in any way I can because I feel that it is so terribly important," she said.
"There is no way that I can possibly express Sir Jack and my great pleasure and pride, as avid readers and appreciators of literature, that our beloved school is involved in supporting such a wonderful programme as this.
"I hope the club will grow in enrollment here and that our school library will soon be filled with all these wonderful books that we are being encouraged to read so that it too will become a place of the hope, promise and excitement to our students, which I experienced in my youth," said Mrs Singer-Hayward.
The club at Jack Hayward High held its first official meeting on Nov. 24 with a membership of 28 students and 11 teachers. To date there are 49 students and 21 teachers.
"We are bursting at the seams," boasted Delores Kellman-Jones. "We have exceeded what is considered the norm for the size of a book club. That is so because our attitude is to encourage and encourage.
"Eventually we will have to break into smaller groups so that the book club discussions can become more effective.
"There is a reading fever on campus and it is contagious among the students, teachers and administrators," said Mrs Kellman-Jones.
With electronic alternatives posing the biggest threat to reading, principal Stubbs and his team are counteracting forcefully.
"We are putting a lot of emphasis on our teachers in getting our students to see the vision," he said. "We have the television, DVD and video games, but we feel that those forces can be counteracted in the classroom, teacher to student.
"We are happy that the minister had the vision to institute this book club and we are excited to be a part of the programme."
Minister Sears said there was "a hunger among our students for constructive intellectual engagement and this club demonstrates that once the idea is launched people will basically be carried by the power of literature.
"All of the (selected) books are books of redemption. They show the human spirit overcoming difficult circumstances. They show that you cannot imprison the spirit of a people.
"These are important lessons to aid our young people as they encounter difficulties, peer pressure, violence, abuse at home, that they can survive, that there is an alternative and that they have it within themselves to realise all their dreams.
"I am very pleased and I want to commend the administrators and the teachers and students of this school for leading the way on Grand Bahama."
Deputy Director, Mrs Collins said students read the required text books, and they will read manuals or instructions.
"We are trying to take it to the stage where persons are reading simply for the pleasure," she said. "We want students to realise that reading is a source of refuge, an escape, a worthwhile hobby.
"It is a challenging task therefore the book club committee has to select books that students can identify with. The selection is crucial given the many distractions that the youngsters face."
"I am so proud of this school and I love it so much," beamed patron, Mrs Singer-Hayward, "and I think that all of the students know that I consider them to be a member of my family, Sir Jack and I both do. We love them and we love the school. It is our passionate commitment to the school."
