One of the greatest challenges facing Robert Harding, the vice-principal of the Falmouth All-Age School in Trelawny, is the daily tug-of-war between the often negative influence of his students’ home environment and that of the school.

“It poses a really serious problem… It’s not as if the child wants to behave in a particular way… You get them here and you try, but when they go home, they go right back to it,” he said.

Harding’s ‘it’ refers to everything that detracts from his students’ ability to focus on the values and attitudes that the school tries to instill in them, namely a high self-esteem and the drive to maximise their potential.

“What we do is use ourselves as models. I use myself as an example,” he said.

It works for the most part. Most students can’t help being moved by the story of sheer determination with which Harding propelled himself from the deep rural community of Success in Hanover – where he was born on April 22, 1950 to parents Theophilous and Viona Harding – to his current position.

“I knew I had to get out of that community, and I knew the only way to do it would be through brain power,” he told the OBSERVER WEST.

There were five of them – Harding, his brother (now deceased) and three sisters.

Harding attended the Success Primary School. For some reason he cannot remember, he never took the Common Entrance Examinations (CEE) or the Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT). He continued at the school, which was eventually transformed to an all-age institution and on graduating, he returned to teach there for a year.

In 1970, he enrolled in the Mico Teachers’ College where he read for a certificate in Biology. He interned at the Maldon Primary School in St James and on completion moved to Falmouth, where his brother was residing, to teach at Falmouth All-Age.

He subsequently upgraded his certificate to a diploma at the Moneague Teachers’ College, and went on to read for a first degree in Education Administration at the University of the West Indies through its long distance programme.

Today, he has no plans to leave Falmouth, as his life is deeply rooted in that community. A Justice of the Peace and member of the board of the Weslyan Holiness Basic School in Falmouth Gardens, he is married to Doreen Harding, a paralegal and has two children – Kate and KeVaughn – who are in the Hospitality Management and Architectural fields respectively.

In spite of the very low pay, teaching has turned out to be a very rewarding career, which Harding said he wouldn’t change for anything.

“I guess I’ll retire here… My life is right here and there’s great satisfaction in seeing the children you have helped realise their potential. I remember so many, some of who have returned to teach here, and it’s just great,” he said.

“I remember a boy who was placed in a certain group here.

He was struggling to be placed number 35 out of 37 students. Today, he has a degree in Marine Biology. If someone hadn’t persisted with that boy, he wouldn’t have realised his potential to be what he is today,” he added.