BY WANDEKA GAYLE, Star Writer
Winston Pedley directs one of his art students at the Spanish Town High School. - WANDEKA GAYLE
WINSTON PEDLEY, OF Linstead, St. Catherine wears many hats, from artisan to community outreach worker, but Pedley's special hat is art teacher for his alma mater, Spanish Town Comprehensive High school.
Pedley, however, had not always wanted to be a teacher. "I believe I more wanted to be an artist," he told THE STAR with a smile.
Pedley, an artist himself, trained at the Edna Manley School of the Visual and Performing Arts from 1978 to 1982.
Then, he entered the classroom with a notion that it was to bide his time and give him a steady income. However, Pedley, who has had the opportunity to expand into his first love and conducts work in his former community of Tawes Pen in the parish, says that he was bit by the teaching bug. He has spent approximately nineteen years imparting his knowledge to students.
In 1983 he went back to Spanish Town Comprehensive High school where he stayed until 1996. He then went to the Cayman Islands to teach at the Ignacious High School. But three years later he returned to Jamaican soil back to the classroom.
MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES
But he says that it is far more difficult to produce high-quality artists when the majority of students have no flair for art.
Pedley, however, believes that while all his students do not leave with a hope of becoming world famous artists, or even plan to take up drawing as a hobby, learning art has its advantages.
"Students can pick up skills like creativity here which can be applied to any other aspect of life," he said soberly.
To motivate them to that understanding he says that he would put empowering quotations on the walls and bring in outside guests and artists to motivate them. "And I personally feed myself motivational speeches given by people like Les Brown and Kurt Nugent."
Pedley talks in glowing terms about a star pupil who was the worst apple he had seen in his years at Spanish Town Comprehensive.
"I remember when I came to the art room, I would see him walking the corridors," Pedley said, "he was a good artist but he eventually got kicked out when he got to grade 10."
UNKNOWN TALENTS
But that was not the end of it for this student. Pedley believes that had he not taken in the boy as an apprentice for three years, he would have turned to a life of gangs and violence as he lived in a volatile community. "He now has his own art studio and I believe that I helped to save his life." he said.
But with all that Pedley has to do with his time, how does he manage it? He told THE STAR that he puts a lot of time into improving himself, has his own art work shop and is a graphic artist to boot. "A teaching salary alone just cannot do it," he insisted.
Pedley insists that he will continue to help people make a difference, helping young people develop their unknown talents and become confident and more useful to society.
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