Pat McIntosh – from educator to politician

This was a quote by the People’s National Movement’ candidate for Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West Patricia McIntosh, who was all set to retire as principal of St Francois Girls’ College after serving 36 years as an educator.

She served for four years in Guyana after her husband, Sydney Andrew McIntosh, returned to fulfill his duties to the Canadian Bauxite Company who had offered him a scholarship to study engineering at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. Andrew McIntosh is currently the president of the National Gas Company (NGC).

The two have been happily married for 38 years, with three children.

McIntosh was also named Woman of the Year 2010 by Advocates for Safe Parenthood Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE).

She had drafted out her retirement plans which included visiting her six-year-old grandson Sebastian in Houston, Texas more often and accompanying her husband on some of his business trips so they could spend more time together.

She wanted to catch up on her reading, which is one of her passions, and spend less time in the kitchen on Sundays so she could relax with her family.

Politics was the furthest thing from her mind But it was not to be.

On Glorious Saturday, while having a pedicure done, McIntosh received a call on her cellular phone from the deputy chairman of the constituency of Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West.

“He said they had an emergency meeting and my name came up and would I consider presenting myself for screening as their candidate. My instant reaction was no, never in my dreams. He called back and asked me to reconsider and I said I am not a politician, I’m an educator, no.

“They kept calling and said I had until Easter Sunday evening. On that Sunday I went to church and I put everything to the Lord. I said ,‘Lord, lord, what do you want of me? I’ve served hard for 36 years, what else do you want of me, lord?” McIntosh said during an interview at her constituency office at Belmont Circular Road on Thursday.

She said she offered to help to coach another candidate if they had one because she was so intent on following through with her retirement plans.

“But when he said no they had no one like me, and thanked me for even considering his offer, there was something in his voice, I had to say yes. I had to help,” McIntosh said as her eyes filled with tears and her voice broke.

“I’ll be honest because I cried for two weeks. Do you know why I cried? Because I had to give up my plans to see my grandson and my life I had planned. I was going into retirement and I had these lovely plans. I had contracted one definite consultancy and I was in negotiations for another consultancy to develop, assist and coach principals. It is something I know like the back of my hand. I had found my retirement niche.

“It’s very painful for me when I ring my grandson and I say, ‘Sebastian do you love Pat?’ He calls me Pat, he’s a man,” she said with a laugh. “He tells me, ‘but I don’t even know you’, and he’s close to his other grandparents so the few times I get to go, he’s not close to me and it’s painful.”

McIntosh said she gave up all her plans because as an educator, she had seen and witnessed the investment that the Government had made into our human development.

“God knew how to work on me to make that step. If the call had come from anywhere else I would have said no, but seeing the people how they need me to represent them, I just couldn’t refuse. I said I can serve because I believe that what the PNM has done, it has proven that it is the only party with a plan,” she said.

McIntosh said she was going to fight for the people of PoS North/St Ann’s West because most of them were faithful members of the PNM and deserved the very best of what the PNM had to give.

“People are asking me what ministry I want, uh-uh. Contesting this election, for me I don’t want to hear the word ministry. I don’t care if they don’t give me any, it doesn’t matter to me. I just want to win my seat and give my life to the people. Again, my family will get what little slice of me that they can get,” she said.

McIntosh said her husband was her biggest supporter, the one who gave her the final nudge.

“My husband was the one who was most positive from the very beginning. He said I’ve always served and I love to serve. He said God was calling me to continue my service. I am religious and spiritual. I think that is what the Lord wants of me, I was born to serve,” she said. “I have a domesticated side to me also. On Sundays I go to church and I spend the rest of the day cooking various dishes and put it in the refrigerator. I can’t cook in the week because I get up at 4 am, if not 3.30 am and I am tired when I get back home in the night. Nobody minds and we spend that little quality time together,” she said.McIntosh’s passion has always been education and believes that developing young people to become strong citizens is critical to nation building.

Her resume is extensive which includes a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages, a Diploma (dist) in Educational Administration, an Executive Diploma in School Management and Leadership, a Diploma in Mass Communication, a certificate in Strategic Management and School Development Planning and a certificate in Communication Technology in the Secondary School Curriculum.

“Teaching is a vocation. It is so much giving, so much altruism. It is putting students and the cause of education before self. It is a lot of personal sacrifice. If you don’t have that you are not going to be successful because you have to nurture and mould these young minds. It takes a lot of patience, love, determination, commitment and ‘stick-to-itiveness’,” McIntosh said.

She said educators must be tolerant and understanding and not know the meaning of giving up on a child. McIntosh said when disciplining a child, one must look beyond the problem and into a child’s eyes to see the real reason behind the pain.

“Indiscipline is only a demonstration of a deeper problem. I passed through the whole school system – junior secondary, senior secondary, composite schools – and I will tell you something. I have yet to meet a child behaving badly and not performing when there is not a problem. It is just a manifestation of that pain. They need a lot of care and love and understanding. If you have a problem and nobody understands, do you know how you feel? You feel alone, as though the world is against you,” she said.

McIntosh questioned why the United National Congress shut down the Civilian Conservation Corps, the youth camps and community centres.
“What did the UNC do? They neglected the community centres until they were falling down. They closed down all the youth camps, the OJT (On the Job Training) programme. They left the people bare.

“That is what is going on with those criminals. When the UNC came into power, why did they take away everything from the people? I am not saying they did it for spite, but you think crime start now? The seeds were sown before,” she said.

She accused the UNC of making a mess of the secondary school system by doing away with the Common Entrance Exams to introduce the Secondary Entrance Assessment exams.

“They said everybody must pass the SEA, but what about the children who are not ready to pass the SEA? What about those who can’t read and write? They were made to feel inferior. They made a mess of the secondary school system and they put no remedial things in place.

“When the students came out of secondary school they came out like you take a dose of salt. They came out as ignorant and uneducated as when they went in. And worse, they came out with low self esteem and anger, a feeling of betrayal by society,” she said.
McIntosh said the UNC even downgraded the programmes at the John Donaldson and the San Fernando Technical Institutes, leaving nothing for the people.
“Nature abhors a vacuum. Something has to fill it. What filled it? Crime. I challenge any researcher, I mean we always had crime but this big boom we’ve been seeing over the last ten years or so it came from that. I used to tell people, I said they were coming to kill us. I used to see it in the schools. They had nothing so they start to smoke weed on the block and turn to crime. Crime is a manifestation of something more deep seated. This full blown state of crime was germinated since then and mushroomed and that is what we seeing now,” McIntosh claimed.
The PNM candidate said education was the future of the people because it meant liberation and emancipation.

“That is my concept of education. I come from a lower middle class home but there is no limit to where I or anybody can reach with education. The world is your oyster. I was asked if another party had called me if I would have gone. Maybe I might have because I had no big allegiance to any party if they had shown me a plan like the PNM’s plan.
“I am impressed with the investment the PNM has made in the human capital. I am not saying it’s perfect because there is still a lot of illiteracy still to be addressed, but we’re on the way there,” she said.