Christine Campbell: What a life of teaching can teach us

When we think of the many professional occupations that people play to contribute to the maintenance and betterment of society we may find ourselves at a loss to determine which occupation we could definitely not survive without.

From the doctors and nurses that work in our cherished National Health Service who tirelessly attend to our myriad ailments and maladies so we may remain fit to fulfil?our own functions in the community to the emergency service workers such as firefighters and police officers who have the prerequisite integrity of character to selflessly put their own lives in danger at a moments notice to rescue and defend us from the many evils of the world, a debate as to which profession should be held in the highest regard of admiration would be one that could potentially last for time immemorial.

However,?if their is?one profession that could be argued to rightly have the title of first amongst all others bestowed upon it, it?would be that of the teacher. It is the teacher who will imparted the correct understanding of human physiology to the doctor and nurse that will enable them to prescribe the correct drug to cure whatever ailment their patient may be suffering from, the teacher who through the?careful impartation of?the delicate understanding of the fine art of mathematics to the aspiring police officer that will enable them to develop the skills of inductive reasoning and logical thinking that will ensure?they?solve whatever case comes across their desk and make sure the offender is brought to justice never to harm anyone else,?and finally the teacher that will demonstrate the value of resiliency to study that will enable the firefighter to never give up in completing the long and rigorous recruitment process required to be successfully hired for this most challenging profession.?

Furthermore it is not only academic knowledge?that a good teacher will pass on in their lessons in the classroom but also all the essential characteristics that anyone who chooses to dedicate their lives to this noble profession naturally possess in abundance. Those being dedication to their craft, patience, resiliency, compassion, empathy and the highest levels of emotional intelligence and maturity. These two separate, but co beneficial attributes combine to form the basis of the ideal teacher who throughout their career will teach several generations of children who will then go on to use the knowledge and wisdom gained from the process of learning to improve the lives and wellbeing of countless others within society.?

It would then be an irrefutable point to make that for anyone who has worked with, been taught by, or even briefly meet Christine Campbell (pictured right with her father after her university graduation) that she is the living embodiment of the perfect teacher, an excellent encapsulation of everything that is needed to succeed in the profession. This is something that Christine has done consistently for well over four decades since having began her teaching career at the young age of twenty at Saint Patricks?Crossmaglen primary school.?

Now in her sixty-fifth year and having retired from her role as the headmistress of Saint Malachy’s primary schools nursery unit Christine has come forward to tell her story to The Newry Democrat, a privilege which we are more than pleased to be gifted with. We will thus take this opportunity to learn what valuable lessons can be taught from the?story of a person who has dedicated their life to a profession that, in this journalists humble opinion?should be considered first amongst all others.?

This lesson starts where many others do, at the beginning of Christine’s life growing up in Crossmaglen as a young child in what could be described as more safer and simplifier times.?

"I was born in Newry in 1956 and lived in Crossmaglen and I have to say that as a small child it was a beautiful place to grow up in my time there. It was very much a village community so if you were down the street and you misbehaved anyone, not just your parents would correct you and likewise if you cut your knee someone was always on hand to patch you up.?

"You could leave the house in the morning and return at dinner time and your parents never worried because they knew you were safe. This was a lovely way to grow up and I do feel sorry for the children now who do not live in such a tight night community as the one I grew up in. Parents nowadays are far more aware of all the potential dangers posed to their children in the modern age. So they are reluctant to allowance them the same amount of freedom that I experienced growing up.?

"It was at the unassuming age of three when most children her age would be more preoccupied with climbing the neighbourhood trees, drawing, singing and playing in the dirt and more or less doing anything that did not involve learning and education??that the ambitions Christine had to become a teacher first manifested themselves. Ambitions that would result in her convincing the headmaster of Crossmaglen primary school at the time to enrol her early and giver her a head start in her educational career. A decision that would prove to have a minor long term consequence on her entire school career.?

"I was always one year younger than everyone else at school and this was due to one simple reason, I was enrolled in school one year?early but let me take a step back and explain.?

"I was about three when I realised all of my friends around me were all going to school but because I was a bit younger I could not attend school yet and I quickly realised that I had no one during the day to play with. As a result I tortured my mother to take me down to school every morning and she took me down and told me that since I was to young to attend school I would have to plead my case myself to the headmaster.?

"So I went in to the headmaster of the school at the time and asked him if I could be enrolled in the school and rather expectantly he told me that no I was to young to attend primary school yet.?

"I did however eventually manage to wear him down and he agreed to enrol me in primary one. I remember he said specifically " Come on in here and I will cure you, I will give you one day in here and we will see how long you last."?

"He told my mum to wait because he thought I probably wouldn't last longer than only a few minutes. So he took me in and sat me down next to my friend whose name was Josephine. I remember quite distinctly that she had a large card with her name wrote on it. She was tasked with copying her name down. I thought to myself "Oh My gosh this school is not?what I thought it would be this looks to be hard work. My mum gave me my card with the name Christine on it and It was equally as long and it seemed so hard to transcribe.?

Christine (Centre) pictured with three cousins at Saint Patricks Primary Crossmaglen.

"But all my friends were there and I stuck it out. As a result I always was one year younger than everyone else at school."

In addition to her innate desire to be with her friends, learn and assimilate the?knowledge and information that would enable her to fulfil her ambitions Christine is able to cite a few particular examples that acted as inspiration for her to become involved in education and to try and change it from the inside.

"I suppose there were things in my education at primary school that really did disturb me such as teachers slapping children. I do remember that there was one particular boy, who on an almost daily basis was relegated to a corner of the room and forced to wear a cap with a great big D emblazoned upon it which stood for Dunce. He obviously had learning difficulties and the child should have been getting twice the much attention as they were giving him then. Instead he would spend his whole day facing at a corner looking towards the wall.?

"I remember feeling so angry as a child that this was happening but there was nothing you could do about it because this is what adults did then. So I remember thinking, you know if I get older I want to change this because I thought this was absolutely dreadful. Back then education was reinforced by fear. "If you don't do this, if you don't get this done then you are going to get slapped." Fear was the primary motivator behind learning instead of the thrill of learning itself."?

"Another factor was my Great?grandmother, a Miss Rice was a teacher in Crossmaglen, although in those days you could only teach until you were married and then you had to leave the profession. But I always remember that my father was very proud of this fact and hoped that perhaps one day his daughters could go on ahead and follow in his Great Grand mothers footsteps.?

After having completed her A-levels at Saint Louis Grammar School, Christine then applied for a place to study teaching in London, a locale she decided upon partially to help fulfil her ambitions as a teacher, but also to help realise her dream of traveling around the world. Emulative of the experience she had of her first day in primary school, Christine found her initial university experience to be challenging, however with a small measure of resiliency she saw through her first few months of the academic study of teaching and then truly realised her love of the profession?after having defused a rather heated situation during her work experience placement.?

"I studied for a few months in London on the course before I got bored with the theory behind teaching but then I was sent out on my first teaching practice. I realised very quickly that when in the classroom setting?I enjoyed the practical job of a teacher far more than the study of the subject itself.?

"On my last day on the teaching practice I had only 10 children to supervise in that classroom while the teacher I was working under the tutelage of had the rest of the class to look after. A young boy of about 7 years old?who had learning difficulties jumped up on the top of a table with a pair of the teachers scissors and was threatening to cut everyone. The teacher who I was working under went and hid behind a chair and I didn't think this was an appropriate response to the problem at hand.?

"My natural instinct?was to try and defuse the situation so I went over and started to speak to the child and started to distract him with a story. After a while I managed to talk him down and took the scissors of him and I managed to successfully resolve the situation. I found this rather easy."

"After this incident my inspector told me that apparently I had a way with children, that?they were totally interested in me and that in his opinion I handled the situation far, far better than the class teacher so perhaps I should seriously consider a career working as a teacher. After this incident I thought, right why not??

"I went on ahead with my teacher training in London and in addition to this I used my time ever summer to travel and attend to this ambition. I went to university when I was 17 and finished when I was 20, a three year course in total."

After having completed her studies and qualifying as a teacher Christine was very fortunate to immediately land a job in the very primary school that she herself argued her way into one year early, which enabled her to fulfil two of her greatest life's ambitions?

"I returned home and completed my probation year. I returned home and thought that life was great. I was earning quite a reasonable salary as a teacher and I thought that I would use this to allow me to go traveling on my holidays away from school. So this is what I did.

"I travelled all over Europe several times, I lived in Spain for two months over one summer as well as Malta. I also incorporated my love of music whenever I travelled because I did a bit of Disc Jockey work when I travelled for extra funding so that helped support me as well.

Like anyone of her generation the thirty years of sectarian conflict and violence that plagued Northern Irelands past?resulting?in the deaths of over 3,000 people which is often euphemistically referred to as the troubles has had an indelible influence on Christine life, even more so due to the fact that she was a teacher working in a primary school in one of the most dangerous geographic areas?during the troubles.

The Troubles

"Working in both Crossmaglen primary and Nursery schools, I worked through the height of the troubles which proved to be a rather harrowing experience at times. There is one incident in particular I remember from my time working in Crossmaglen that will stay with me forever.?

"The army would have regularly patrolled the grounds around the school because they thought it kept them safe. However this still did not stop the IRA from trying to attack them.?

"I taught a primary one class and there were three children in the class who were very nervous about going out into the playground because there were over 100 children playing there.?So every day at break time I let them play with the sand beside the window looking out into the playground so they could watch what was happing outside and see that it was fun. There were right in front of a big plate glass window.?

"So one day I decided that they had spent enough time looking out at their friends?and I thought that the time was right to send them out into the playground and show them how much fun they can have playing with their friends outside.?So I took them out into the playground and while I was doing this there was a British Army personnel carrier blow up right outside the gate.?

"After this I came back into the classroom, checked that all the children were safe and uninjured, which to my relief they thankfully were and then I realised that the plate glass window that these three children were sitting against had been blown completely inward. It had littered the sand tray that they had been playing in with shards of broken glass. If I had of left the children there that day they would have been cut to pieces.

"Also around this time there would have been a lot of different men coming from the Department of Education to carry out various different duties and I remember that they would have often taken home school text books with bullet holes in them?as souvenirs."?

Despite having lived through the zenith of the troubles in her most formative years as a teacher Christine was able to take the experience she developed in her time working as a teacher at Crossmaglen and use it to help develop her passion for helping not only her students but adults as well. A passion that she would carry with her in the next stage of her career whenever she became the headmistress of Crossmaglen Primary.?

"After having worked in Crossmaglen Nursery for several years I saw an advert for a principals in Saint Malachy’s Newry so I applied for this job and secured it and as the rest is history.?

"One of my proudest achievements from my time in Saint Malachy’s was the construction of the parents and staff room. When I started the job there were a lot of parents and staff who were traveling form the likes of Dundalk and Belfast and didn't know anyone and so had no company.?

"We wanted to make the school a better place for both the parents and the children so I set up a parents club and opened it up to the wider community. This club offered activities such as photography, beauty, ICT, as well as a book club. We also had a gardening club that was located in another section of the school that was walled off. So people with addictions and the like who didn't want a police check and done could go there and do something therapeutic to help improve their mood.?

"The book club started out as people just borrowing books but then it developed into people getting together to have a chat and a cup of coffee. It then developed into people arranging walks and runs and physical activities such as this, so that was a good thing.?

"Over the years I began to realise that there were people in attendance at these clubs whose only real outlet was bringing their child to school. So I began to see if we could introduce some courses and qualifications into the school so we could get them accredited so they could find employment."

"This did happen and there were a few people who did go on to find employment and even in a few cases go on to do degrees. It was different every year, but I made sure that it was known that the school belonged to the community and offered parents opportunities to come in and help out in whatever way they could. Some of them came along and read stories to the children or prepared food for them or did arts and crafts with the children.?

"There was one group of parents who did get together and fundraiser for us and raised a lot of money for the school so that was terrific. They felt like it was their school.

"The school also received a lot of awards and accreditations. We won the best kept small school award several times as well as receiving an A from the EU inspection organisation.?

In my time at Saint Malachy’s I also worked with a lot of special needs children who had disabilities which ranged from things like Autism to other learning difficulties.?

"I remember there was one child I worked with in Saint Malachy’s who was an elective mute. She could speak but chose not to because of past trauma in her life. We tried everything with her all year. You don't force a child to do anything who has this problem you just take it nice and easy all year and praise them for whatever else it is they are doing and hope that they come around. You don't make an issue out of the fact that she is not speaking. We sat beside her and tried various different activities to encourage her to speak.?

"It wasn't until after Easter that she started to whisper to her little friends in the class. I remember that day that I excused myself from the class, went out into the playground and shouted out aloud, Yes! we did it. I was so glad that she had spoken."

Christine Pictured Above with her first year group at Saint Malachys Primary Newry

Having dedicated her life to the profession of teaching for over four decades , Christine has now?attained a level of skill in her career, that any practitioner of any craft hopes to attain, that of being a true master. Naturally she is more than willing to impart a lesson or two taught to her by her career to the next generation of teachers and headmasters that will follow in her footsteps.?

"What my career as a teacher has taught me about doing the job is that you have to be dedicated, you have to really want to do the job and definitely have empathy with children. You need to be able to think on your feet. For example I once had a parent?come in of the street who had a child who was under my tutelage?four years prior?and told me that her child had tried to commit suicide and consulted with me for information. In your career path as a teacher things like that just come out of the blue. I learned very quickly that it is very beneficial to have all the right phone numbers on hand but you need to be able to talk someone through a difficult situation. You have to have empathy with people.?

"I always try to lead my life by the lesson instilled by that old anonymous poem, A measure of a man, that a person shouldn't be judged by things likes their wealth, social status or education but by the level of compassion they have for other people and the strength of your friendships and the level of contentment that they have with their?own life.?

"I believe that this lesson is the most important part of being a teacher, that you emphasis with other people. I think teachers who worked in days of old would have tried to instilled a lesson into a class and if they didn't absorb the information they tried no further. This was not the type of teacher you want to be. You?want their to be a mutually understandable relationship between you and the children under your tuition,?their should be a relationship there between the two of you and therefore this made learning fun."

Now having retired Christine will be sorely missed by all?the students and staff at Saint Malachy’s Nursery Unit Newry. She plans to spend the rest of her years attending to the life's second great passion, traveling. Although she had plans to travel to South East Asia, like many people her ambitions have been hampered by the ongoing Covid19 pandemic. However this still hasn’t dampened her spirits claiming that there are “still plenty of places in Ireland I am ashamed to say I have not visited yet, but I intend to in the coming weeks and months. I had hoped that I could continue to fulfil my traveling ambitions. I had Cambodia and Vietnam in my sights for this year but unfortunately, like a lot of people my plans have been hampered by COVID-19. But I still do intend to travel around Ireland. I am ashamed to say that there are still several places that I have not visited so I intend to pay them a visit?in the coming weeks and months.??

Christine pictured with her final class at Saint Malachy's Nursery Unit Newry