The Cuban economy is fairly typical of the small tropical, primary producing, import-oriented economies which comprise the majority of the world’s under-developed nations. In terms of national income per head the Cuban economy before the revolution was stagnant rather than poor. Eric Williams [24] states that the national per capita income in 1958 was $500.00 ranking third in Latin America and well above average for third world countries.

One of the common threads which run through the reading and rhetoric on education in the English-speaking Caribbean over the last twelve years is the need to structurally relate the education of the region to its socio-economic goals.

By the end of the 19th century Trinidad had four single-sex secondary schools, the earliest of which, St. Joseph’s Convent (Port-of-Spain), was a Roman Catholic Girls’ school dating from 1836. The most recent foundation was Naparima College (c. 1900), a Canadian Presbyterian secondary school in southern Trinidad, chiefly for Indians. The two main secondary schools - Queens Royal College (hereafter QRC), and St. Mary’s College of the Immaculate Conception (hereafter CIC) -- were founded in 1859 and 1863 respectively.

The high school system in Jamaica dates back to 1879. Its history can be conveniently divided into three periods — (a) 1879 to 1911, (b) 1912 to 1943 and (c) 1944 to the present. King has done an excellent study of the formative period, 1879 to 1911. No study has so far been done on the period 1912 to 1943. This paper attempts in a modest way to begin to fill some of the gaps in knowledge about this period.

The economic history of the West Indies since emancipation deals for the most part with the decline of the sugar industry, the efforts made to rehabilitate the industry, the relative success or failure of these efforts, and the attempts also to diversify the economy. Despite declining fortunes, the white minority retained political supremacy, and perhaps because of their uncertainty about their economic position they fought to maintain both political and social supremacy.

The complete abolition of slavery throughout the British empire in 1838 carried with it profound implications for the maintenance of order, stability and economic viability in those colonies where social and economic structures had been largely supported by slave labour. The coercive laws, the repressive police actions, and the barbaric punitive measures that had been instituted to demoralise and control the slave population could not, after 1838, legally be used to hold together the fabric of a free society.

In an earlier issue of this Journal some four years ago, the present writer attempted to analyse the establishment of a publicly funded elementary school system for slaves in the Danish West Indies. Its formal inauguration in 1841 was an occasion of more than passing significance. Whatever its shortcomings, it marked the first time in the history of the Caribbean region that a local administration had committed itself in a statutorily binding way to make provisions from local revenue for the support of a universal primary school system intended for the children of slaves.

On 16 May 1841, some seven years before emancipation in the Danish Virgin Islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, the first school for slave children was officially opened on the St. Croix plantation of La Grande Princess. It was one of 17 such projected schools — 8 in St. Croix, 5 in St. Thomas and 4 in St. John — built from capital funds provided by the crown, with recurrent costs for staffing and maintenance borne by local taxation.

Education in the Caribbean: Historical Perspectives is in reality a special issue of the Caribbean Journal of Education which brings together papers on the history of education in the Caribbean. Covering the period from the early eighteenth century to the nineteen seventies, these papers tell the story of the origins and development of education in the region. From them we can identify the individuals and organizations who provided education as well as the social groups for whom it was provided. We may examine the motives and objectives of the providers as well as those of the clients.

In preparing this article I chose six social functions of art and planned three sample lessons for each. The lessons are aimed at helping secondary school students understand these functions by actually trying to put them into practice. Each set of lessons is preceded by a short description of the social function of art the lessons are intended to illustrate. The lessons are intended as samples of the possibilities which exist. A number of these ideas have been tried — with very satisfying results — by some of my own interns here at Church Teachers’ College.