THE OPENING OF MONSIGNOR GLADSTONE WILSON COLLEGE

Monsignor Gladstone Wilson College

was off to an encouraging start for the new school year amidst mass migration of teachers and other challenges of the "post" Covid 19 pandemic. The two-year-old all-boys school now has eight students, a jump from the two they had last year when it was all virtual teaching. Their first day of school was also filled with words of encouragement as the students settled into their new environment from the Principal, staff andBoardMembers.

"We encouraged them to be the best version of themselves and be focused. We also encouraged them to create more soft skills to help create a paradigm shift in society. Our society is really needing soft skills," Principal Dave Soares said. "There is too much abuse and aggression taking place so we encouraged them to not only be good academic students, but to be good social beings as well.

Without soft skills, societies are going to disintegrate in barbarism andviolentbehaviours," he warned.

Parent Michana Reid was excited for her 12-year-old son Javier Fisher to commence his secondary education attheall-boyschool.

"I really want him to get the best education and I realised that a lot of the schools are at full capacity in terms of students. I remember going to school and it was a lot of us, so sometimes my teacher didn't have the time to check my homework," Reid explained.

As Chairman Selbourne Hemmings stressed at the first dayoforientation, this was quite a historic and rare occasion, where as a startup school, the students have a higher ratio of teachers to students and so the opportunity for individualised and personalised teaching will be a tremendous advantage in these pioneering stages of the school development.

This is both unprecedented and highly advantageous and although cannot last forever, is something that is unparalleled in any other educational institution.

The Life Of Gladstone Wilson

Born in 1906 in Mavis Bank, St Andrew, it was recognised early that young Gladstone was extraordinarily bright. His parents wanted him at Jamaica College, but he was refused entry; instead, he attended St George’s College. He debated with his fellow students and the Jesuit faculty, and in fifth form he was baptised by his headmaster and became a Roman Catholic; he convertedhistwo sisterstotheCatholic faith. He was awarded First Class Honours in the Cambridge Preliminary Examinations, and in 1922graduatedtopofhisclass.

He went to work in the civil service, but later decided that he wanted to become a Roman Catholic priest. The bishop arranged a scholarship for him to study at the Urban College in Rome, and he began in 1925. He completed his BA (Hons) in two years, receiving the prizes for Natural History, Latin and Greek. He was awarded the Chancellor’s Philosophical Scholarship, and proceeded to readforhisPhD.

In 1929 at age 23, he obtained his first PhD –‘Summa cum laude’ – coming first in his college; his thesis, written in Latin, was titled, ‘The Living Wage’. In 1930 he completed the degree of Bachelor of Divinity with Honours, being Gold Medalist and Prizeman in Psychology, Moral Philosophy, and the HistoryofPhilosophy.

On Christmas Eve 1931 he was ordained to the priesthood at age 25; his early ordination (one year before his course of studies was complete) was by special permission of His HolinessPopePiusXI.

In 1932 at age 26, he was awarded the Doctorate of Divinity (DD) ‘Magna cum laude’ from the Faculty of Philosophy, winning the Chancellor’s Gold Medal for General Excellence; his thesis, again written inLatin, was ‘TheMarriageBond’.

Now with two doctorates, he was appointed tutor at his alma mater, the only West Indian and the first black person to occupy this post. In 1933 he was appointed a lecturer at the PontificalVaticanUniversity.

To cut a long story short, in 1934 he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Canon Law (BCL); in 1936 at age 30, he received his third doctorate – in Canon Law (DCL) ‘Summa cum laude’. After returning briefly to Jamaica, he went to FordhamUniversity, NewYork, graduatingin 1940 withanMAinSociologyand a Diploma inSocialWork.

Rural Jamaican man, the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Gladstone Orlando Stanislaus Wilson (19061974) CBE, PhD, DD, DCL MA BA (Hons) BDBCLFRSADipSocScihasbeenrankedas the Seventh Most Learned Man in the World. He isa worthyrole model for Jamaican young men.

The Rev Peter Espeut