Herewith I am sharing a labour of love from some of us who shared that magical period with Colm Kehoe. Former EEB2 teacher Mr Angel Cortes Flores, former EEB2 student Hugo Stanbury & former EEB2 staff Ms. Lea Andries have joined me in wishing him farewell.
O Captain! My Captain!
I took the above picture of Colm Kehoe, on Saturday 30 June 2019 during the BRUMUN handover. I had wanted to write about his contribution to EEB2 school community & on 30 June 2019, when I saw him, I asked if I could take a picture. I said “When Brumun 2020 happens, I will write an article about you”. He joked, “Wait a minute Sanjee, I should look like I am at the desk, all ‘official’.” This was the last picture I took of Mr Kehoe. He gave me consent to publish it. Unfortunately BRUMUN 2020 got cancelled due to the pandemic & I eventually didn’t write that article.
Looking back at my phone pictures, I am filled with a deep sadness for this great loss for our school community but I am also filled with so much gratitude for what Colm Kehoe has given us. This picture represents what Colm was, he was not at all a teacher sitting in the class room all the time in a full suit. He was the teacher running between classrooms, the corridors & the playground & eating a sandwich outdoors during his lunch break. He wanted to make sure that the pupils achieved the best of everything, while looking for their full potential especially in the field of critical thinking skills. I guess he just asked me to take a picture of what parents think a teacher looks like.
I first heard about Colm Kehoe in September 2016 when I arrived at EEB2 from Namibia. It was just after the Brussels attacks and I found the school looking grey and austere looking: I thought the school needed the spirit of community building. Someone mentioned that Mr Kehoe had done the world’s largest Lip Dub bringing together all 3500 students & that it was the most amazing experience. I also heard about Mr Kehoe & the Debate Club. One day I passed by the APEEE office in the prefabs for something & I saw a teacher walking out of his class room right next to it. The students were referring to him as Mr Kehoe. I said hello to him & he was warm & open for parent-teacher collaborations. When I asked how we could help, he immediately added me to his parent volunteer list for “mock debates”.
After becoming an APEEE Board member in 2018, I asked Mr Kehoe if APEEE can help in any way as I loved the teaching of critical thinking skills & giving a governance model to the students. He was shy about receiving help & refused to talk about funding. But asked me if I could help find a venue for the BRUMUN event through the parent community. Later, he asked after I insisted on helping, if the parent association could help by buying equipment for the Media club as the students were using his equipment & in 2019 he would be leaving the school. This was a promise I fulfilled through a project proposal to APEEE Social Fund & I found out later that Mr Kehoe had donated his old equipment to the Media Club too. I have seen him just give 50 euros to buy equipment any time to the students who needed something & he never thought twice about spending his own money for the school. This was on top of the hundreds of hours he spent outside the school hours helping Model United Nations project (mymun: Model United Nations – Explore, Organize, Research, Travel), the school trips & the grand debates etc. In 2018 & in 2019 the APEEE voted to financially support BRUMUN with a grant of 6000 euro & this made the logistics of finding the conference facilities much easier for the students. Mr Kehoe was an excellent negotiator going back to the school with APEEE funding & the school management provided school premises for two days of the four day conference despite the overcrowded conditions. Mr Kehoe was a visionary & he wanted to reach the goals & work for them.
It was a difficult job to find Mr Kehoe if you needed to contact him. He did not use social media & he also did not use WhatsApp. If you are lucky enough to catch him by email and fixed a time, then you could meet him at his class room for 15 minutes. During that meeting, students would walk in & out coming in with reports and requests. It felt like a press room at the United Nations. If I tried to meet him during the lunch hour, it was impossible to catch him as he ran the Debate Club during his lunch break. Mr Kehoe was a teacher who was not available to meet at the school canteen because of his busy schedule.
As a new parent who just moved from Africa missing the human warmth, I found that Mr Kehoe opened the doors of the school into community building with parents. He was the inspirational foundation for the working group “school community building” which I created in my first year at APEEE. He told me about the various clubs that were at the secondary school & I realised that EEB2 had a magical world beyond the grey & austere looking buildings. I met Matthew Pye & the climate conscious world, Sarah Chambers & the Feminist club world all through these introductions. The list is long of all the wonderful teacher run clubs at EEB2. Mr Joachim Schmelz was quietly supporting all these clubs & in fact gave me the entire list when I contacted him. This is a world that normally primary parents have no clue about & I am grateful to have seen a glimpse of that world through the eyes of Mr Kehoe.
Then there was Mr Cortes Flores. Mr Kehoe was protective about the young teachers who went the extra mile & asked me if I could find ways to thank them. I was aware of Mr Cortes Flores and other teachers who did so much for our children while having difficult working conditions as Locally Recruited Teachers (LRT). Mr Kehoe did not say it outright but he hinted gently to me how teachers could be thanked. He once forwarded me a beautiful email sent by a parent which thanked him for having organised the Media Club videos for the Welcome Committee of APEEE. He tried to teach me what actions would make teachers feel inspired & motivated. And he set an example by thanking every single person who helped him including all the students. The last email he sent to the school community on 10 March 2019 after BRUMUN was a powerful demonstration of the legacy he left behind.
I was inspired to introduce the celebration of the International Teacher Appreciation Day on October 5 thanks to the world he opened up for the parents. This has been well received by the APEEE & the school management & it is very much appreciated by the teacher community.
It was impressive how he integrated wellbeing topics into the Debate Club by coordinating with the school management. The grand debates were filled with topics that the pupils needed to reflect and touched on wellbeing. I understood that Lea Andries & Colm Kehoe worked closely on the list of topics.
Then Mr Kehoe created the Media club to film the Debate Club and combined the skills of both clubs into creating a Model United Nations club & finally BRUMUN. He was a dreamer, minute details were all in his head & he worked day and night to make it come true.
He did not stop with the EEB2. He created a fantastic network of schools around the world which attended BRUMUN. Some of the schools that attended BRUMUN came from far away places such as Ethiopia, Albania, Sweden, Ireland & Switzerland. And what was even more impressive was how he organised BRUMUN training at EEB2 for the participants of other schools who were not familiar with the conference. Brussels schools and Luxembourg schools participated in these trainings & the trainings were free of charge. I recall that he was instrumental in starting up the Debate Club of EEB4 & inspired EEB1 to organise their own mini MUN event.
BRUMUN is a project that I can write about for days. But what I discovered after his departure was that so many dedicated teachers of EEB2 came forward to continue the legacy of Mr Kehoe. As a parent who believed in his dream, I went behind so many teachers asking to help & every single teacher agreed to help. Whether by signing up for duty at the actual event, or during a Saturday duty for a training, so many committed teachers helped without a word of hesitation. It was a beautiful demonstration of commitment for the education of critical thinking skills. I still remember one teacher who first told me she was not available but when I told her what BRUMUN was all about, she said even if she had a full schedule she would find the time to help. What I learned was that the teachers at EEB2 believed in his dream & this was their way of thanking him.
He once told me, that I should be a “stealth fighter” and explained how this fighter plane worked in the world wars. It was one of the most memorable life lessons I received. Strategy, Tact, Diplomacy, Persevearence & unlimited enthusiasm were skills he possessed that combined making him a true Stealth Fighter.
Although my children never benefited from his teaching, I was grateful to have witnessed how he taught older students. They were unafraid to give their views but at the same time deeply respectful of him.
On July 5, 2019 Mr Kehoe was at the school & he would be handing over his keys. I thought it was an opportunity to thank Mr Kehoe from the school community. I contacted Lea Andries from the school management, Hugo Stanbury, CDE president 2019-2020, APEEE president of 2019 Giles Houghton-Clarke & Mr Cortes Flores. Mr Cortes Flores had a class to teach but Hugo, Lea & Giles could make it. Hugo had managed to gather a number of students who had benefitted from the Debate Club, Media Club & BRUMUN. We all waited in Mr Kehoe’s class room and he was truly surprised. There were touching speeches & Mr Kehoe being the modest and shy person he was, was speechless. It was one moment where he was the object of attention. Mr Cortes Flores told me later that Mr Kehoe had been deeply touched by this farewell ceremony. Recently a student thanked me for having organised it. He wrote the following. “It made me realize that I need to be more grateful to the teachers I’ve had, and to let them know how important they are to students. I’m currently planning on writing thank you emails to a couple of the teachers that helped me grow the most at school.”
I cannot express the pain I feel. It was a magical experience to have known Colm Kehoe. Till we meet again!
If you would like to add your contributions to this farewell of Mr Kehoe you can contact me at sanjee.goonetilake@thewoluwediairies.blog
Sanjee Goonetilake
One of the greatest teachers EEB2 has seen
by Hugo Stanbury, President of the Students Council (CDE) of EEB2 2019-2020
The scale of the life changing impact that Mr Kehoe had on me and hundreds of pupils at EEB2 is hard to visualise. He was incredibly driven, pioneering dozens of projects principally in film making, public speaking, and debating. Central to these projects were that they would be student led, regardless of their importance. He gave us big responsibilities, having immense belief and confidence in us, and supported us throughout the journey.
What is perhaps the most impactful consequence of these actions is that through these projects, he inspired us to dream big, and push ourselves to reach our maximum potential in all respects of life. The value of the self-confidence, self-belief and drive he gave to his students is indescribable.
Mr Kehoe was also truly there for us in a pastoral sense. His easy going, friendly, funny, uplifting spirit was incredible. I can remember spending many free periods visiting Mr Kehoe in his classroom with my friends, to talk about just about anything. I know that this was the case for many students and is perhaps ultimately the best reflection of how his students, how we, felt about him. This soul driven care was a point of stability for all, through the tumultuous years of secondary school.
He poured his soul into his students and seeing us become the best versions of ourselves. His belief in the good of students and of the school community, to come together and do great things was a beautiful message to us.
His legacy in the school and in the hearts of all the pupils he had an impact on will live on forever. I can say that I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for Mr Kehoe.
Hugo Stanbury
Let us take the time to thank Colm Kehoe
by Angel Cortés Flores, former EEB2 teacher
We all go to school and then, one day, think back to our education. For some reason, we occasionally find ourselves unable to recall the name of a certain teacher again. This would never happen to anyone who might be looking for Mr Kehoe’s name. Indeed, every single one of his pupils will remember his name, for Colm’s impact on them has been colossal. For those who have never had the chance to know him as a teacher or as a close friend, which wasn’t much of a difference either way, he was a dreamer, a guardian, and a role model.
When Colm talked about the future, he never considered himself. He only thought of others. Through his ivory-green eyes, he would see the talent in each and every person he met. All that mattered to him was to turn people into a better version of themselves, their true selves. He would always highlight qualities in everyone so effectively, that pumped-up chests and smiles were common everywhere he was. On the other hand, he would always tell you frankly how deeply disappointed he was after watching a sloppy performance or some inappropriate behaviour but would always provide solutions to make amends. He would not only tell them which path would lead them to success, but also be there to lay down a stone whenever they needed him to. He was always there for everyone, day and night. He always made everyone feel that anything was possible; and with him, it usually was. Under his wing, I saw hordes of teenagers learn to articulate their thoughts, refine their rhetoric, and master their emotional abilities up to a level I had only seen on television.
He did not see anyone as a blank page waiting to be filled, but rather as a bud ready to bloom and he knew what to focus on for each petal to spring up elegantly. At the European School of Brussels II, he built his own safe space in the prefabs, which he wittily compared to Ireland, because “it was in Europe, but was still an island”. He loved it because it was one of the places where he could experiment with ideas without bothering too many colleagues, because he knew that many of his classes would be loud. In fact, clapping and cheering were always in order after a great speech or performance – and virtually all of them were. He often walked off the beaten track pedagogically. His methods were atypical but reverential, entertaining but serious, tough but rewarding.
Although risking criticism by those who had never experienced his lessons, he kept innovating, because the results of his experiments were thundering, deafeningly thundering! His classroom was his Belgian lab, a place where anyone could come to plant an idea and learn how to grow it – a place where liberation, creativity and tenderness would mingle around, a little like Warhol’s “Factory” without its infamous drifts, of course. He was not that type. I have for instance never seen him drink a drop of alcohol. He once told me the stories of his family pub and recounted that some of the customers he had seen had convinced him to keep away from it. He knew what was important and what wasn’t.
He did not care when hundreds of people mispronounced his last name both in Spain and in Belgium, where he was called Mr /KeyHO/ rather than /KEYoh/. On the other hand, he would not hesitate to spend his entire salary to purchase whatever was necessary to make a child flourish. Every pupil knew that if tools or devices were necessary to reach the goal, he would get them. He loved making people feel as heroic as the YouTube “2-Hour Epic Music Mix” he would play between classes, while referring to Socrates or Plato. He cared for them so unconditionally that I often thought to myself that they were not his pupils; they were his children. He genuinely loved them, and they adored him too.
The more I learned about him, the more I appreciated him. It was wonderful to see him enjoy a cake with the cheerfulness of a four-year-old celebrating his birthday. On that point, he once told me that the “perfect recipe for a school trip” – another one of his memorable achievements – had to contain a birthday, and it didn’t matter “whether or not there [was] a real birthday during the trip; it [was] the celebration that mattered”.
Colm taught us so much. He forged respect because he was lucid, worthy, and talented, but always remained humble. After throwing the biggest project the school had ever seen, he would ask to be edited out of the ‘after movie’ or cropped off the pictures in which he appeared “because [these events were] not about him”. Indeed, they weren’t, but without him, they would not have existed. Without him, thousands of pupils would not have gone to university with the fondest memories any child should have from his or her time at school. Without him, many pupils would not have developed the confidence that they could make the world a better place for everyone. Without him, many of us would not have turned into the person they are today. He was one of the few people I have met who kept a promise. And despite all these qualities, I will never forget the surprised look on his face when he was complimented…
It has been tough to realise that I will never again be able to see his polo shirt and black signature jacket shake up and down when his sincere laugh echoes in the room. He was a wonderful person to be with, and a true inspiration. I learned more from him than from any books I have read or lectures I have attended: achievement, passion, compassion, “you name it,” as he would say. Colm clearly left us one of the most memorable legacies a human being could wish for.
To most colleagues across the globe, to probably all his pupils, and undoubtedly to me, Colm left a mark. He was one of those alchemists who turn any metal into gold by giving his time to support everyone who needed him, and I have often wondered if all of us gave him enough in return… I often joked that EEB2 would one day erect a statue to celebrate all the great things he had done. To use another expression of his, now is the right time to say: “Here is your chance. Start lobbying now.”
Every debate club member would know that Colm was obsessed with the rule of three, especially if it was combined with an anaphora, so to conclude this text, let us remember this:
Let us take the time to appreciate everyone, forgive and be forgiven.
Let us take the time to highlight everyone’s talent and teach them to like their flair.
Let us take the time to be Mr Kehoe – or Mr Key-OH. Either would be grand.
See you in Heaven, Colm.
Angel
Remembering Colm Kehoe
by Lea Andries, Principal Educational Adviser EEB2 2012-2020
As Principal Educational Adviser in EEB2, I was the privileged witness of Colm’s inexhaustible energy and drive. His passion for education was clear from the very first moment.
Our closer cooperation started with the Lip Dub that set the entire school, both Primary and Secondary, in motion. This, to me at least in the beginning ”a crazy idea” was the first achievement of promising initiatives of his to come.
I was invited to come to Speaker’s Corner in the playground. Stunning, how he could motivate his pupils to express their opinion in front of hundreds of peers. And his feedback, straight to the point, but at the same time encouraging … So wonderful, I realised that students in EEB2 were really privileged with a teacher like him. He empowered all pupils, he encouraged them to stand up and speak, to become critical citizens.
And the Mediaclub filmed it all under his supervision and guidance.
Where the Grand Debates at the beginning were only meant for S5, S6, S7 I found Colm ready to extend it to the younger students. I am so grateful for his willingness to introduce topics related to students’ wellbeing, as it introduced the focus on wellbeing in the entire secondary.
All students could benefit from Colm’s wide range of professional skills. Students were keen on his tips to do better and they were delighted with his encouraging feedback, even on the smallest step of progress.
And still, Colm kept on dreaming. BRUMUN at the horizon. With his charming, enthusiast, persuasive arguments he motivated management, teachers, students and parents and several international schools to make BRUMUN come true. In his modest way he facilitated an unforgettable legacy, even if he wanted to stick into background.
His untimely death is so sad to all his family, friends, colleagues, students past and present.
But as said today during the funeral, Colm’s life was at loan. He made it fruitful and in our heart and lives he leaves a legacy of inspiration and positivism.
Colm, rest in peace, you were one of life’s finest.
Lea Andries
