Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jeffrey Foster was no ordinary Jamaican math teacher, but a legend in his time, who moulded many lives.

He was a man who believed in service above self. For his students, Foster was more than a teacher, extending himself into a caregiver. For his Roman Catholic faith, he was a commensurate Christian, but for his Hannah Town community in West Kingston, he was a beacon of hope in a ghetto community long forgotten by Jamaica’s affluent society. 

He was the voice of wisdom and good reasoning. For me, he was one of the few teachers who sought to purge mediocrity from the vast potential existing in me, only to be found in later years. This Jeffrey Foster was not known to me alone but to thousands of others from the ghettos of Kingston and St. Andrew. 

Unfortunately, we lost Foster transition on September 9 having lost a leg due to diabetes earlier this year and weeks later his battle with prostate cancer but his legacy lives on through the lives of the thousands of students at the schools he taught math and other subjects at Decarteret College, St. Anne’s Secondary and later Campion College, which has been ranked as the top high school in Jamaica for a number of years.

Life depicts service above self 

He never sought after material wealth but resigned himself to developing the academic poverty that he saw in the ghettos of downtown Kingston, so much so that he lived with the poor like his saviour, Christ did. He sought through his teaching gift to push students to attain their purpose fulfilment through academic pursuits. 

Many saw him as a folk hero in downtown Kingston, but to me and many others like me, he was God like and God sent. Foster, from the stories we were told, epitomises the mantra of service above. This is evident from the experiences shared by those, whose lives he touched and connected. 

Our Today journeyed to Upper Oxford to hear the stories about this legend and folk hero of Kingston’s inner-cities. The mood was sombre, as the community had just lost its math genius, beloved Justice of the Peace (JP), conflict arbitrator, church elder, school teacher and a symbol of hope that better can come ghetto; it just needs someone to believe in you, which is the best start anyone can need. 

This reflection of the man is so true, as prior to doing the interviews for this article I wrote a tribute to Foster on my Facebook page commenting, “You weren’t my favorite teacher because I held you in contempt because you beat me in [ninth] grade for getting high 50s in my math test, which was a passing grade but you were teaching me an important lesson that I never realized until long after of never settling for mediocrity when excellence is in your blood. I’m glad I was able to be there for you as you were there for me. RIP Sir.”

Community member Lorraine spoke glowingly to Our Today about Foster’s role as JP and that of an after-school match teacher, giving of his time and craft free of cost just to offer help to those kids in need. He had no biological children, but “Little Jeff”, as he is called, was adopted by Foster more than two decades ago and is the only father he has known.

Little Jeff told Our Today that his father was a parent to all the kids in the community and elsewhere and was the ice-cream provider each and every Sunday, as well as a second help to so many others. Foster could have retreated to the middle-class life that most of his peers aspire to, but felt compelled to remain in the inner-city to give hope to the hopeless and those in despair, particularly through the church, where he was instrumental and foundational. 

Head of St Anne’s Catholic Church, Reverend Father Patrick Kihugi, advised that Foster “had a deep relationship with the late Archbishop Edgerton Clarke, who confirmed him as a young boy at St Paul’s church in Mandeville.  He loved the church, and so even in his suffering bed, he transformed his painful moments into joy. He did encourage me a lot as he went through his dreadful prostate cancer, among other ailments.”

Continuing Father Patrick, who now enters his third year as head of St. St Anne’s Catholic Church remarked, “I have lost a legend, a great friend,  a parishioner and a real Catholic, my St Anne’s has lost him as well; the entire community in the surrounding feels the emptiness after the loss of this great Justice and Peace who lived honorably among them.”

Math genus

He conceded that Foster was a great disciplinarian. Parents and students readily admitted to Our Today that Foster was a math genius. His style was simplistic but not necessarily simple, like learning math formulas through a song that resonates with the student, treating students as individuals rather than as stereotypes, and developing classroom learning experiences through knowledge and understanding of the students’ experiences, interests, feelings, strengths, and deficiencies.

Also, orienting students in a structured way to their environment, and maintaining positive expectations. The results were amazing as one parent Ann-Marie Allen testified on social media, “he (Foster) was a good math teacher. Took my son from barely passing to a Grade 1 in less than a year. My son told me he told him on the 1^st day that he could get him to Grade 1 if he was prepared to work. He told him nothing less was acceptable and so if he wasn’t prepared to work not to start the class.” 

Another parent reacted that Foster was so brilliant at his class that he would make a song of his math formulas in class and taught his students to do likewise. Another patent,  Jacqueline Edwards commented, “Mr.Foster, Math Teacher at Campion College. He had such love for his students and only desired excellence. He was such a motivator who believed in the ability of his students to do well. He also taught extra math classes at Holy Childhood on Saturday….”

Idolising Foster

Dianne Ferguson wrote on social media, “RIP Mr. Foster you taught my son at Campion College. Man of wisdom a true educator and former student now educator, Ethel Carpenter commented, ”Mr Foster was more than my teacher, a family friend and most Important a stalwart of St. Anne’s Church Community. Lives he had impacted are numberless both at St. Anne’s and Champion College. RIP Jeff Foster.”

Sharon Smith remarked, “… Jeff Foster one of the stalwarts of St Anne’s and Champion College, gone but not forgotten!! may soul rest in peace and light perpetual shine on him.”