Tribute to Clifford Isaac Chang “Teacher Chang”
“Only The Best Is Good Enough”
That night in the dilapidated twin roof sand-dashed wooden building that housed Beersheba Elementary Moravian Church School when Harry B. Crawford, his wife Muriel, and their three daughters sat on the old wooden platform on which he and his predecessors taught and administered school affairs from, teary eyed school students and their parents silhouetted by the light of the old Tilley Gas Lamp in sombre mood, sang the farewell song YOU’RE GONE BUT WE SHALL MISS YOU, THERE’LL BE NO SAD FAREWELL, WE’LL ALL REMEMBER YOU WHEN WE BREATHE OUR EVENING CHOIR, that was accompanied on the twin pedalled organ by Miss Louise E Tomlinson “Miss Lou.”
With Harry B. Crawford, Principal Beersheba Elementary Moravian Church School, his wife Muriel – also a Trained Teacher – and his three daughters were no longer at the school, students at the school felt short changed that Teacher Crawford was snatched from us.
However, in the words of Earl Chambers, “Teacher Chang as he was fondly referred to by those of us students who had the privilege of his intellect and pedagogy” (science of teaching), the arrival of Clifford Isaac Chang, a young and handsome bachelor fresh out of Mico College, took up occupancy in the wooden Teachers’ Cottage and began to make his presence felt in the school room and the community.
Teacher Chang’s adroitness and tact was mentioned by Mrs. Louise E. Tomlinson-Meyler “Miss Lou” – Teacher Chang’s good friend – whom at 93 years although her short term memory is affected by age, she remained alert and focused during our lengthy conversation. Mrs, Meyler told me during our conversation, that when Teacher Chang came to Beersheba Elementary Moravian Church School fresh out of Mico College, finding her at the school as a Senior Teacher, “Miss Lou” quoted Teacher Chang saying to her: “Miss Lou, I am the Principal but you have the experience.” Teacher Chang’s management style was not autocratic, dictatorial, draconian, totalitarian, and demagoguery. Conversely, as Mrs. Meyler testified during her conversation with me, Teacher Chang knew how to get work done through other people and the bond of friendship, respect, and good interpersonal relationship that developed between Teacher Chang and herself, resonated throughout the classroom and encouraged all teachers on staff to work assiduously with his management team. Teacher Chang was an ardent listener who made himself open and ready to take good advice. Teacher Chang, the model teacher and professional did not involve himself in cass-cass and gossip, but he acted with professionalism in and out of the schoolroom.
It did not take long before Teacher Chang became fully cognizant that he was assigned as Principal, Beersheba Elementary Moravian Church School that was located in an impoverished poverty stricken peasant farming community. Teacher Chang did not talk down to people in the community and refer to them as idiots and fools who have no sense. Conversely, Teacher Chang imparted his knowledge to people in the community through the medium of his involvement with farmers who he organized as members of Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) and Parents Teachers Association and saw tremendous growth.
Teacher Chang did not remain a bachelor in the old wooden Teachers’ Cottage for too long. In the words of Earl Chambers one of Teacher Chang’s student and my fellow classmate: “I remember as vividly as if it was yesterday, when Teacher Chang married Miss Joyce Black, an epitome of beauty, grace, and charm. Miss Joyce was Teacher Chang’s Mona Lisa, a work of art, a masterpiece for whom, with respect to Beersheba Elementary Moravian Church School Community, it was love at first sight.” Teacher Chang and Miss Joyce was a strategic fit whose shared compatible values of compassion and pity thankfully received by those who are in need. How can I describe Teacher Chang’s Philanthropy without including myself as a recipient of his unmatched hospitality? Time and time again during my lengthy conversation with Teacher Chang, I would remind him about the numerous occasions when in response to notes that my poor poverty stricken mother sent to him telling him that I came to school hungry because she did not have any food to give me to eat. With smiles on their faces – without fanfare, their right hands not knowing what their left hands was doing – fully cognizant that a student cannot learn if he or she is hungry, Teacher Chang and Miss Joyce provided me with a glass of nutritious drink and appetizing cream biscuits. Regarding Teacher Chang’s philanthropy, Roy Winston Holness – a member of this BOSA tribute, former General and District Manager for Sherwin Williams Jamaica Limited – will testify if I had given him the opportunity to do so the numerous times he also benefited from Teacher Chang’s philanthropy.
Teacher Chang did not only detest mediocrity, but he insisted on academic excellence in the entire school curricula including school gardening and manual training for male students, sewing classes for female students, and the 4-H Club where male and female students were taught how to “tun we han and mek fashion.” The school motto which Teacher Chang himself coined: ONLY THE BEST IS GOOD ENOUGH says it all!!
And speaking of the 4-H Club, it was in this organization that Teacher Chang with assistance from Jabez Stevens, Parish 4-H Organizer taught us as male students how to recycle kerosene tins and make them into ovens in which female students baked cakes on coal pots on Fridays. It was this holistic approach which Teacher Chang used to encourage leadership qualities among his students that resulted in the school being nationally recognized in Public Speaking and Debating Contests.
Teacher Chang believed in and motivated his male students to strive for academic excellence. However, as Vincent Brown, Earl Chambers, Roy Holness, William Dennis (Dr. William Dennis, M.D., FRCS, (deceased) and Vincent Samuels who made the school’s Honour Roll repeatedly, soon learnt from Teacher Chang, being on the school’s Honour Roll was no substitute for hard work that reminded us of the dignity of labour. The four legged iron Caledonia Stove in the school canteen on which Gwendolyn Comrie-Smith, Canteen Cook –Beersheba Elementary Moravian Church School Alumna – cooked meal lunches that we served to students at a subsidized rate, had to be kept lit to provide cooking power for huge cylindrical aluminium pots in which corn meal porridge and soup was cooked.
It was Teacher Chang’s male honour students who were made group leaders for other male students who went to “Mass Bush” common near old New Market Square every Thursday to search for logwood firewood which were tied in bundles and carried as head-loads where they were unloaded at the canteen. The dignity of labour was also in the virtues of Honesty, Perseverance, Punctuality, and Success after which houses were named. Punctuality being the house in which I was placed repeatedly until I graduated and served as an unpaid Supernumerary Teacher at the school for three years; fully explains the reason that I have never been late for work or appointments throughout the years and like Teacher Chang, I do not know what is meant by Jamaican Time.
The bellowed pipe organ at Carmel Moravian Church on top of the hill in Westmoreland, never sounded the same from the day that Teacher Chang’s fingers left the keyboards. Although Teacher Chang trained several church choirs, he remained committed to our school choir mixed choir and Boys’ Choir which always excelled at the Parish and national levels of Jamaica Festival of Arts. “Speed Bony Boat Like A Bird On The Wing”, “Oh The day Of The Kerry Dancing”, “Blue Danube Walls” are among the repertoire of Irish and Welsh Songs Teacher Chang taught us and developed our skill in reading sheet music.
It is in the pursuance of Teacher Chang’s fond memory that is indelibly etched and entrenched in the subliminal consciousness of all Beersheba Elementary Moravian Church School Alumni in Jamaica, USA, Canada, England, and elsewhere in the Diaspora that three members of BOSA (Viola Cain-Hall, Roy Winston Holness and Vincent Samuels) rendered as a musical tribute the Welsh Song: ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT that Teacher Chang taught our mixed school choir as he played the old piano with Roy Winston Holness conducting the choir so as to ensure that musical expressions such as fortissimo, rallentando, and crescendo and others were rigorously observed.
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The following tribute was received from the Ministry of Education:
“The Ministry of Education regrets the passing of Mr. Clifford I. Chang, who distinguished himself as a Principal of Beersheba Elementary School, New Market, Saint Elizabeth and served the educational system for years. Our condolence to the family of Mr. Chang.”
“A heart that is focused on others will not be consumed with self”
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