Monk evolution

MACHEL MONTANO, 49, is probably the most famous student of the University of TT (UTT) at the current moment.

On Sunday, as he received keys to the city of San Fernando, he announced he would opt out of Carnival 2024, owing to his need to focus on finishing his Master of Arts in Carnival Studies degree at UTT.

If the ten-time Road March champion began his career back in 1985 with the declaration that he was not Too Young to Soca, he now caps that career with a declaration that one is never too old to go back to school. He’s in year two.

“I want to set a foundation,” Mr Montano, the founder of his own record label, Monk Music, said. “If you don’t know where you are coming from, you can’t know where you are going.”

Anticipating some degree of disappointment from his most diehard fans over his 2024 non-participation, he asked for understanding and for appreciation of the fact that you must sometimes sacrifice to achieve your goals.

But many might question why someone like Mr Montano feels the need to turn to university at this stage in his career. Surely, they will argue, anyone who has spent decades performing at his level has already attained a degree of skill and accomplishment no degree can bestow.

More generally, in the world of work it is sometimes believed experience is the best teacher: what students learn in the cloistered confines of the study hall can never prepare them for the real world. In fact, some might even go so far as to suggest too much book sense gets in the way of real learning.

In the cultural realm, it is well known that a degree is no guarantee of talent or performance capability. Training is important when it comes to honing and nourishing abilities.

But it is the combination of skill, practice and hard work that ultimately delivers. Some of the most celebrated artists to have roamed the planet never studied at university.

This is even more so in the realm of the carnival arts, where many of the competencies that matter have been handed down orally from generation to generation or learned and refined through trial and error.

Mr Montano’s latest evolution reconciles all these ideas.

Student Machel reminds us that in a highly competitive world, a degree is essential. For good reason. Rigorous schemes of tertiary education encourage critical thinking and foster transferable skills needed to succeed in life, no matter the industry.

While academics are not and should not be the gatekeepers of our culture, formal programmes in university settings can open the gates for generations to come. They should be supported and encouraged in the way Mr Montano, through his example, has.