In recent weeks, the Calabar Old Boys’ Association has raised issue with the interim principal. Despite what is said in the glare of the media and in front of the public, that is not the real reason for the pushback.
In the halls of group chats where people feel comfortable being themselves, their true selves due to the distance and anonymity offered by social media and these chats, they state clearly that the opposition is because this would-be principal has the defect of being a woman in an all-boys’ school.
Let that sink in, ponder it for a moment.
Now, as a person who went to an all-boys’ school, I can say the first instinct is to understand where they are coming from. There are things to becoming a man which a woman does not understand and vice versa. There is a culture in all-boys’ schools which, because they are all-boys’ schools, sees the woman as alien and intruding, even if she is your form leader. It is a masculine place in short, much like an officers’ mess.
But that is where the understanding and sympathy break down because we have seen in traditionally male dominated areas (like the army, fire brigade police force,) women rise to the top and lead such organisations.
But even taking that out of the equation, to become a man in this 21st century, and especially in an all-boys’ school where masculinity is the order of the day, one needs to learn and appreciate female authority and that women are equal to men.
I get the trepidation, old values will be looked at with foreign eyes, assessed on their merits and kept or discarded. This is a scary thing; cultural changes often are. But the fact of the matter is that all-boys’ schools do need cultural changes, paradigm shifts which will only be done by outside (read female) eyes. Things that were deemed as traditional will be discarded, not because tradition is bad but because they have no part in this brave new world.
I know for a fact that St George’s College was facing a crossroads. Dr Fred came in as a stopgap, assessed the damage and laid the groundwork for someone new. He spent years abroad so had fresh eyes, but it was and remains the current principal, Mrs Campbell, who revitalised the school, saved it from the doldrums it was heading to and put it back on a pedestal in the eyes of the country.
I say that to say, Calabar has, for some time, been at this crossroads. It has a rich legacy, history, and tradition. It has given us some of the best and brightest, it has much to be proud of, but the truth is that it has been a shadow of its former self for some time. When I was doing GSAT, Calabar was not even in the top 2 of my choices and I come from a Calabar family. It has lost much of its shine.
A cultural shift is needed and fighting this principal because she is a woman highlights that this is the case.
The school needs sprucing up, it needs a level of discipline which has not been there for a while, and it needs to re-focus on the basics of a school — education and the crafting of a whole individual — as opposed to being a fly by night sports academy.
Winning Champs is fun, but in the end that means nothing if your graduates struggle in the university and work world against those same former competitors. This, at the end of the day, is the issue which faces not only Calabar but also their fierce rivals JC and many more of the traditional all-boys’ schools.
A serious culture shock is needed and pushing back against such a shock does a serious disservice to the boys who the school has been charged with developing. It does them no good to keep them tethered to the late 20th century or even the turn of this century. Thinking outside the box is needed if they are to take part in this brave new world.
Beyond that, the school, as noted, is supposed to be the place where children are formed into people. In an age where femicide is rampant, where a walk on the road will have you witness the degradation of women, and at times open violence against women, we really should be teaching boys and young men respect towards women — not because they are women but because they are human beings deserving of equality.
This argument, this tussle over what is viewed as stepping on hallowed turf is, at least to me and my untrained eye, showing that there is no respect for women still, despite the awesome statistics showing women dominating our workforce. There is still very much a ‘know your place’ mentality, unspoken but there, and this highlights it, again in my untrained eye.
We live in a new world, times have changed, and as with all times definitions of masculinity have changed. What was deemed masculine in the 1950s would have been deemed odd and unbecoming in the 1850s when it was fashionable for boys to wear pink. Calabar can maintain the fool’s errand of trying to hold back progress, shove their head in the sand of the past, that is their right. All it will do is hold the school back, and it will be dragged into this new reality kicking and screaming. The best thing they can do is welcome it and work with it because it is coming anyway, be it now or 10 years from now.
These all-boys’ schools, bastions of masculinity and tradition have a choice to make especially as we see the increased breakdown in social interactions. Fighting this is the wrong move and sends the wrong message. They have a chance to change this and come good. If they don’t, it will haunt them.
