NOEL
The week before Easter is always 'Champs' time. Young people (and the not-so-young) pour into the National Stadium over a four-day period to watch hundreds of young athletes pit their skills against each other - all for the glory of their schools and for personal feelings of well-being.
The atmosphere in the stadium on the Saturday evening is always electric. There is always an intense battle for supremacy between the top boys' schools and the cheers often reach to thunder pitch.
Marvellous clashes
But of interest to all is the head-to-head competition in individual races. Some are still spoken of today: the clash between Bert Cameron of St Jago and Ian Stapleton of Kingston College (KC); between Usain Bolt and Jermaine Gonzales.
KC supporters still speak of the exploits of Lennox Miller to Davian Clarke; Calabar enthusiasts of those from Denis Johnson to young Ramon McKenzie. The St Jago faithful of Bert Cameron to Yohan Blake; Camperdown from Donald Quarrie to Remaldo Rose; Jamaica College from Peter Morgan to Waquar DaCosta.
And there are the marvellous girls. Vere Technical's stream of greats starting with Merlene Ottey and continuing with Olympic gold medallist Deon Hemmings and now the exciting Jura Levy. Then St Jago High with Juliet Campbell and continuing to Melaine Walker.
It is an exhilarating time. We exult in the performance of these athletes who, after long months of disciplined and rigorous training, turn up for this four-day festival of physical and psychological brilliance. In them we see examples of what our youth can do.
But the vast majority of our youth do not have the talent or the mental toughness that is needed to perform well at Champs. What they do is support those who represent them.
Glory of supporters
And here's the rub. We do not understand the importance of this.
After his or her family, and the community, the next most important membership group to which a child belongs is the school.
When children are members of dysfunctional families, live in violence-torn, don-ruled communities, it is at school that they build self-esteem and learn the social skills to carry them through life. Remember, a child with a positive self-concept is more likely to become a productive adult.
When a school produces a good team, its achievements are those of the entire school. The youngsters share vicariously in its success.
The joy, the pride, is theirs. Even when it is an individual's success, they share in the achievement of their classmate or schoolmate.
This feeling of well-being, though temporary, is of importance to the child and infinitely more important to those children who belong to families and communities of which they cannot be proud.
COMBATING THE NEGATIVE
Champs fever is something that can be used to positive ends. In my own experience as a teacher at Camperdown, vice-principal at Calabar and principal at St Jago, I have seen this euphoria used to improve the attitudes of not only the athletes, but of other students who are caught up in the joy.
It provides an opportunity which must be clutched with both hands and acted upon vigorously, or we run the risk of it becoming a negative.
We have seen this negative at work. In recent years students, influenced by 'the culture of the don' and all that this stands for, have twisted this school loyalty into an opportunity to play out their feelings of anger and aggression by openly clashing with boys from competing schools.
Thousands (literally) of students from these schools involve themselves in a campaign to prevent this violence but the scores of youngsters who, twisted by the realities of their lives and fuelled by the words of some DJs, continue to perpetrate this antisocial behaviour.
This tends to make the headlines, but I am confident that our educators will control this so that we can exult in yet another area where our youth do us proud.
Keith Noel is a retired educator. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.