The school is flanked with murals that depict the alternative to successfully attaining an education: crime and eventual incarceration. Doors made up of metal bars—similar to those one might find on a jail cell—flank each classroom, each door adorned with a metal padlock to deter theft.
“The word education is not even a part of the conversation for some of our young men,” said Joseph Heron, dean of student discipline at the school. Much of this, Heron said, is because young men in Jamaica, like many of their U.S. counterparts, are struggling with an identity crisis. In Jamaica, many educational endeavors like reading and mastery of English and other modern languages are considered feminine pursuits.
“I was confronted many times by students as if I were lesser because I simply do my school work and answer questions in class,” said Akeem Edwards, an 11th grade student at the school.
Edwards, who will be graduating this year and hopes to attend Yale or Carnegie Mellon next fall, said he sees education as his ticket to a better life.
“Without learning and education, you won’t be able to survive in this world,” Edwards said, adding, “I have gone to bed without food, so … I know the value of education.”
For many of the students, education is not emphasized at home and certainly not as much for boys as it is for girls.
