Rejection and Early Renewal

Though marginally less formal, ‘A’ level learning in the formal atmosphere of my school and boarding existence was not the motivating experience I had hoped for. Classroom ‘learning’ was more interesting in that there were more opportunities for some questioning and discussion/pupil responses to break up the often interesting but master lead outpouring of information.

Actual experience through visits to the theatre for English or to relevant places linked to our history curriculum were significant through their absence but did take place, ironically, outside the formal curriculum . For example, my junior housemaster at the time was a quiet version of the ‘Bertie Wooster’ character who used to drive everywhere in his ancient Rolls Royce, complete with running boards!

On several occasions he would take those of us studying ‘A’level English to the  West End to actually see the plays we were studying. Rocking up outside the theatre in the Rolls driven by Bertie proved to be an added bonus!! More significantly the social process involved in seeing these plays, as well as watching and reflecting on the content of them afterwards increased my motivation to study them academically and improved my understanding.

My Art master, who was also an athletics enthusiast and the first friendly and informal teacher I had met and who both gave individual help was actually interested in what we thought, single handily turned me into a ballet lover. The visits to the local theatre and arts centre in Cambridge , sometimes meeting performers he had previously taught, proved to be inspirational. (I’m sure this focus on ‘friendly, interested and supportive’ stayed with me and became an almost automatic part of my later approach to teaching).

Sport, for the equivalent of one day a week remained a constant positive of my 6th form experience and something I assumed was a common part of a school’s curriculum. Unfortunately, these were the high points of an otherwise oppressive boarding existence. A group of us were becoming increasingly frustrated and angry with the continuing authoritarian regime of our senior housemaster who resided in one half of the ‘house’ with his wife and son. He was like a male version of Roald Dhal’s Miss Trunchbowl who continued to apply petty rules vigorously despite our now being in the 6th form. We felt his behaviour and the whole culture that he controlled was unjust and unfair.

Being forced to return to the barber to have more hair cut off, being forced to attend evening church services, being told off and kept in on the basis of complaints from ‘people in town’!. I was even ‘gated’ for the weekend for apparently ‘rolling in the hedge’ with my girlfriend outside the house, as reported by his wife, when we had actually been talking only!! This sense of injustice was made worse by the fact that we were becoming increasingly aware of the new and more exciting music and fashion world enjoyed by our ‘day boy’ friends who were free and out around town whilst we were restricted to the house grounds for most of the time. Being part of the 60’s culture at home during the holidays just heightened the contrast.

Working in the holidays in bars and cafes when I was 17 meant I was meeting different sorts of people, often more open and down to earth who’d had very different experiences. This was part of the process of my growing realisation  that I had been cocooned within a privileged culture , ignorant of what real life was like. I had assumed that everyone went to a school like mine unless they were at a lower status grammar school! Even knowledge of the ‘lower status grammar school ‘ came from a classic piece of snobbish socialisation. I remember it well.

I was in the changing room after rugby practice and the games master said that our next match was against the local grammar school, a fixture we ‘didn’t want’. I can’t remember any reason being given, but I do recall going into their changing room the next day and thinking it was rather scruffy and not up to the expected ‘standard’. Later, at university I was horrified that I had thought this but such was the extent of my institutionalisation!

Renewal

My growing rebellious spirit and relationship with my girlfriend resulted in poor results at A level and the cold shoulder from my parents. At the same time it was a relief to leave boarding school though I now needed another ‘A’level to get into university, my assumed next stage in life.

Thanks to a generous bedsit offer I was able to eventually get into the local F.E. college to re-take History and to also do a new ‘A’ level; Economics, a subject deemed insufficiently academic by my school. This however only gave me seven months of study before the final exam. A new culture of learning followed:- I obtained two part time jobs to fund my living.

At college, I met other students from a range of backgrounds who were more open about their feelings and experiences and not afraid to argue and disagree. The Teaching at the college was more  informal and the teachers spent more time encouraging and showing interest in what we had to say. I was enjoying the more relaxed atmosphere of learning and finding my new subject intriguing  and challenging. Not surprisingly Economics turned out to be my most successful ‘A’ level .

 I ended the academic year after a seven month concentrated experience that changed my perspective on many things. I was now in a better place but with much uncertainty in my mind. I had started my secondary education as a forced but eventually fully-fledged member and supporter of an exclusive sheltered and privileged culture that I and a few others had now rejected. Why had I now rejected what would have been a relatively easy future? At the same time,  why hadn’t more people done the same?! Why were the new, less easy challenges I now faced and the newer educational and social culture I had started to experience, so much more attractive?

Sociology and life at university soon provided me with the answers and my future version of ‘Common Sense’ learning!