Yes, Verne, the Lady has indeed opened up a can of worms. And yes, you should have called upon the Mighty Sparrow's "Dan is the Man" for guidance and reference. In the song Sparrow concluded and let us know that "If me head was bright I woulda be a **** fool." Looking back at it, "Dan is the Man" should be revisited every so often if only to serve as guidance and reference.
Stop and think about that bold statement for a minute.
Sparrow was saying that as his head was not bright (therefore supposedly dunce), he in fact in the long run was the smart one and not a **** fool. Why? Because he never was bright enough to cram and absorb all the foolishness that Joe Cutteridge wrote and expected him to learn in those old colonial books.
In other words, according to the Birdie, those of us who were smart were unknowingly the dumb ones, because we readily and ravenously gobbled up all the elements of colonialism. Instead of self-realizing who we actually were as people of African descent, our smartness made us learn all the nonsense our colonial masters wanted us to learn. In effect it turned us into mere puppets whose sole desire was to become comical copies of our colonial masters. Hence, the class system that you’ve noted.
Verne, I am vividly recalling a photo of a West Indian draped in the garments of his knighthood including the top hap-hat shortly after Queen Elizabeth had "elevated" him. It could have been the poor picture’s lighting or something else, but I couldn't help chuckling at the image. The man looked exactly like one of those disparaging caricatures that white folks so often use to belittle us, Black men. Sparrow gave us another apt description "Monkey wearing mini," as he sang in MR. WALKER, another one of his long list of great and thoughtful calypsos.
Now having said and recognized all of that, let's ask a most provoking question as you've done, 'would we have traded that type of education and upbringing for anything else?' Not many would say yes, and I believe that's exactly where our West Indian dilemma lies.
Surely we didn’t have to go abroad to realize it, but the numerous incidences in our travels have helped us to be especially cognizant that we are first and foremost Black in just about every aspect of our daily lives. In our journey to become educated as well as to achieve monetary gains, we were and are constantly reminded of our Blackness. It can be a rude awakening when even those gains cannot wipe away that fact and be treated with a semblance of simple respect and dignity. The case of Harvard professor, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, being arrested in his own Cambridge home is a glaring indicator of that disturbing problem. Oprah Winfrey got her sobering reminder of her blackness during her visit to a store in Switzerland. And Rush Limbaugh and his cohorts take pleasure in reminding our President Barack Obama of that fact every living day. As for everyday ordinary folks like Rodney King, the daily reminders are much too many and way too frequent. That, in and of itself, can be deadly as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and the Staten Island choke-hold victim, Eric Garner among numerous others, tragically found out.
Our dichotomy is that our West Indian up-bringing, embroiled in the colonial crucible, has laid the background for us to always try and make it despite the odds. Yet making it in America or Canada or England in no way provides an escape from being stopped and frisked, disrespected or mistreated by the police and our neighbors, or even worst, gunned down like common stray dogs in the street. And that sometimes happen even in our own Caribbean islands!!
That to me is why we should periodically revisit The Mighty Sparrow's "DAN IS THE MAN" if only to serve as reminders of the real legacy of West Indian colonialism.

T, you asked,

>>>>>>>.......Now having said and recognized all of that, let's ask a most provoking question as you've done, 'would we have traded that type of education and upbringing for anything else?'.......<<<<<< 

I will say, within the context of the system providing a good education right on up to the Secondary School level, together with our strict disciplinary upbringing, maybe not. But in the wider context of the stated purpose of education alone, it was left to be desired if one had remained within the system.

Yes, I would agree that we were restricted somewhat by our economic challenges but the fact remains that we had prodeced quite a number of over-educated people to man a government bureaucracy of redundancy, duplicated paper-work and with carbon paper to produce more paper. In essence, unbeknownst to us, we were perpetuating a system of low economic return for our own country but with major benefits to Mother or the other Mothers.

For example, was it really necessary for one to have received 7,8 or 9 GCE subjects (with distinctions, mind you) or even passed the rigorous examination of Senior in order to sell Cloth at Everybody's store or Lumber, Galvanize and Nails at Joanas Brown & Hubbards or even Huggins?

But even that, had in no way reduced our desire to seek an alternative - albeit an illusive one, especially when we came to realize that the current system was doing nothing to guide us towards reaching our full potential.

Secondly, we could not have expexted anything in the form of an alternative by remaining in the system as there were no emphasis placed on individual entrepreneurship but instead, on service; may it be government or private sector.But the little we were exposed to, we made good use of it; buying our time for our eventual immigration to Mother, Uncle and Aunty Canada which helped us make the transition to one of choice rather than designation by way of subjugation. The strict discipline within the family structure was an added benefit, even paramount in the transitional process.Part 2....,.We could not have expexted anything in the form of an alternative by remaining in the system as there were no emphasis placed on individual entrepreneurship but instead, on service; may it be government or private sector.But the little we were exposed to, we made good use of it; buying our time for our eventual immigration to Mother, Uncle and Aunt Canada which helped us make the transition to one of choice rather than designation by way of subjugation. The strict discipline within the family structure was an added benefit, even paramount in the transitional process.

VJL

Sorry for the unedited "part 2" reference in my reply.

I was writing in TMemo on my Tablet and missed the editing in the transfer.

Any education is better than no education, a truism I can agree with.While I agree that our Colonial education was limiting in certain ways, I choose to see the glass as half full rather than half empty, and soo I see it as a great platform on which to build on. From the point of view of Mother England, she gave us what she had, what she knew, that our parents chose not to send us to play Pan, or piano, or to encourage us to fporm ensambles to sing dance or act, is on Them, don't blame Mutha for that.

Only last week I was explaining the difference between Ghana and Senegal, to a friend, which can be extrapolated to the difference between the Anglo and Francophile countries in Africa. In one group education was compulsory and free, in another it was not. A walk through the streets of Dakar and Accra during school hours, is instructional.

On a lighter note I questioned my son recently about his facination with new movies and TVshows with Medieval and gothic themes. It was all new to him and was surprised that I was not shared his passion for them. That was until I explained that I grew up with European History and literature, and with those films at reno and Empire every week.ok?

So I decry the lack of nearly enough Art and Music classes, especially in Grenadian primary schools, but that has noy stymied my love for fine arts, and I have visited museums in almost every large city that I visit.It is now up to us to support and stimulate the growth of education in the areas, where Muthas legacy has failed.

Greetings Downstreet on your return back to the board. Your departure had left us with a void of objectivity that is irreplaceable, despite our attempts to salvage credible conversation among the few of us that remained.

Your post as always, showed a sence of balance regarding the subject matter and a somewhat optimistic perception despite our colonial plight.  But in recognition of  that 'half full glass' you equated to Mother's performance, it meant that the standards by which we ought to measure her contribution was already depleted by 50% (the half empty portion) hence no attempt can be made to exculpate her from her miserable performance.

But more to the gist of your rebuttal is the perception that Mother gave us whatever she had but our parents also bore some of the responsibilities for dissuading us from the arts.

Said you on this,

>>>>>From the point of view of Mother England, she gave us what she had, what she knew, .....<<<<<

Downstreet, sorry bro, but I have some trouble digesting this as I believe nothing could be further from the truth. Mother did not give us what she had, that was reserved for her lawful children in her house; her English Gentlemen. Mother saw us as "the *******ized children resulting from her philandering Husband" and treated us as such. She ensured that all her lawful children were exposed to her culture, her arts, her social structure and prepared them for the perpetuation of a system that assured their continuity of dominance over us, even in our own country. Our educational structure was simply a by-product of her conduct, one that would eventually prepare us to ease the burden on her when "our day of abandonment (call it independence, if you must) arise. In this regard, it was simply Mother's default plan as she bought her time and gradually eased us out from under her domain when we were no longer any benefit to her.

Mother also did not "give us what she knew" in fact,  she made sure we did not know what she knew. Mother reaped the benefits from our naivete by plumeting every aspect of our economy, leaving us with a "raw materials mentality" and had preferred to import us to man the factories in her country rather than giving us the know-how of mechanization. So those of us who had excaped her tentacles at home, surely could not have avoided it when she came calling.

Mother had won again!

>>>>>....that our parents chose not to send us to play Pan, or piano, or to encourage us to fporm ensambles to sing dance or act, is on Them, don't blame Mutha for that....<<<<<

Street, It is important to remember that the stranglehold Mother had on us had encompass every aspect of our lives; politically, socialy, economically and in some cases, religiously. And in the case where a dominant force becomes so ingrained in any country, the populace tends to emulate that force which is precisely what we did.

She debased our culture as inferior, removing any semblance of our African Herritage. Her efforts of cultural clensing incorporated those only of her tradition, even our attire, though not conducive to our climate was influenced by her. Her designation of servitude on our people was so deep that we could not have envisioned our children adopting any other lifestyle othet than those which she had deemed appropriate for us . And worse yet, as the coup de gra`ce of her influence, she made us sing in the hot sun, God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen..... long to rule over us.

What a....., Mother!

VLO

My apologies to the word police.

Oh VL I wish I had the time to take you on with this one. You are going to have to make do with a couple o lines.

I wholeheartedly support Downstreet's "glass half-full approach". I could easily have written his post myself.

Whilst we continue, even today, to pillory mudder for her shabby treatment of us we are blinded to our own responsibility to effectively address our educational and cultural development.

Instead of looking back, why not cast a critical eye on how well we are doing currently

How comparative is education system today with (a) the caribbean, and (b) the world ?

Mango,

I will chalk this up as my loss but as this is the type of topic that can stand the test of time, please feel free to bring it up again and not starve me for too long.

VJL