At certain stages in one’s life everything comes full circle. No one knows that better than Alwin Adams, who after retiring as principal of Coleridge & Parry school is writing a new chapter of his life as an Independent Senator at the age of 70.
While it many seem as though he’s taking on new challenges, for Adams, this new role is a testament to the years of hard work and sacrifice made by grandparents and parents. Even though they have long since departed this earth, this man from humble beginnings credits them for making him the person he has become.
Adams, who is also a former principal of St Leonard’s, credits his grandparents Herbie and Ethel Adams for that push to get an education.
“My grandparents and parents would have come from a part of Barbados called Springhead and Rock Hall tenantry. My grandparents lived on a plantation tenantry and after slavery the tenants were supposed to be tied to the plantation, in that as long as you were living on the plantation land, you and your children should supply labour to the plantation,” Alwin said.
“My grandfather did not agree with that system. He made up his mind that he would break away from that tradition of working on the plantation and struggled and got a horse cart. But he knew that his 13 children must go to school even though they had to walk quite a distance to go to school. It had to be grim determination to get it done because he didn’t want his children to work on the plantation. This was post emancipation.”
Alwin acknowledged that his grandfather was an ambitious man who worked extremely hard and was a leader in the community.
“By going into town with his horsecart he would bring back the progressive ideas to Springhead and spread it among others and he was a thorn in the plantation owner’s side. My grandfather died of hard work, he had a heart attack in his mid-50s leaving my grandmother with 13 children,” Alwin said. “After his death, the plantation owner pushed my grandmother off the tenantry land.”
However, because his grandfather was a resourceful man, he had managed to save money his brother would send back from working in Panama on the Panama Canal.
“The money that my grandfather’s brother sent back to him he put his money with it and bought two spots,” Alwin said. When my grandmother was pushed off, she was able to get help to move with her 13 children, and we lived in that area of Westmoreland. I was therefore then born in Westmoreland.”
Alwin Adams who was raised by his grandmother, because his mother, was a single parent domestic who “lived in”, possessed a knowledge of books that caught the attention of his teachers. They encouraged him to take the exam to go to Coleridge and Parry.
“I was identified really early as one of the bright boys,” he said.
After getting lessons by a teacher, Kenneth Forde, who was courting one of his aunts, Alwin was able to pass the exam.
“When this letter came home saying I had passed for CP, it was rejoicing in the house,” he said. “My mother was not at home – she was working – but she found herself home.
Ironically Alwin said when he went to the school, he knew he was meant to be there.
“From the time I got to that school, I said I wanted to be principal,” he recalled. “I had seven O’levels when I left school and got into teaching.”
He landed his first teaching job at St Leonard’s.
“St Leonard’s became a magnet for children particularly in the St Michael area, so when the school opened there were about 1 500-1 700 children between the girls and boys schools. The government then had to hurriedly make the decision as how to accommodate the students, so they made the decision to have some come in the morning and some in the evening, and soon after that they also had a nine to three. So they had three systems eventually,” Alwin said.
“It was fortunate for me because within a few years after going there they had a full inspection which is a significant event in the life of a school. It is form of evaluating the entire school. What came out of that was that the chief education officer, the principal and other well-known education officers came to the school for two weeks and observed and evaluated. They were impressed with how some of the young teachers were conducting the class and the techniques they were using. I was in a group of young teachers recommended for appointment after that inspection.
“What we bought to the school was a new blood and vigour, brought a lot of discussion. We made a pretty good impact on the school.”
Though he left Barbados for England in 1965 to further his studies, it was also the place where he came of age and found his wife, Yvonne, and started a family.
“Soon after we got married in 1972 my son was born in 1973. That was a big thing because Greenwich Hospital was one of the first hospitals to allow you to come in and see the delivery,” he said laughing. “That was a major shock. It made you feel like you’d never have a baby again. But soon after he was born I got a teaching job in the Bahamas. The superintendent of school was Barbadian and he brought me in and I stayed for seven years.”
Eventually the pull to return to Barbados came. With more experience under his belt, Alwin came back to the school where his teaching career began as the principal of St Leonard’s.
Looking back on his tenure there he had reason to be proud, because he was able to change the perception of the school from one that was disadvantaged to a school that was thriving.
“I expended a lot of energy in putting the school on the map because it was a disadvantaged school,” he said. “The community became really aware and we cleaned up the gap because there were a lot of drug pushers and I worked with the the police. I made sure that I set a good example being there at 7:30 and leaving late. I brought the concept of a management team and changed the curriculum in an orderly fashion. We were able to attract businesses like Budg-Buy and R.L. Seale who helped us in significant ways. Budg-Buy set up a state of the art computer lab at St Leonard’s.”
After working his magic at St Leonard’s, Alwin moved over to CP as principal and was really to realize the dream that he had voiced to himself earlier. It seemed like all the work experience brought him back to where he started.
After retiring in 2007, he has now changed course with his role as an Independent Senator appointed by Governor General Sir Elliott Belgrave. But what gives Alwin the greatest joy is thinking back on how far he has come, and how his grandparents stressed education, and he was able to achieve as a result.
“I am determined while I am in the Senate to conduct myself in a professional manner and to bring something to bear on the debates through eloquence and erudition and ideas,” he said. “My whole being, my whole history is to be helping people. My entire teaching career has been to bring the children of the underprivileged up.”
