The Oxford Book of SchooldaysPatricia Craig Oxford University Press, 1994 - 430 pages `School', wrote Henry Green, `is no odder than the world outside, only more concentrated.' It is also an experience that everyone has to undergo, and many people have left accounts of their schooldays inspired either by repugnance or regret. The old school, whether you compare it to a Fascist state (as W.H. Auden famously did), a hothouse, a prison, or a place of lost content, remains with you for the rest of your life. Drawing on fiction, memoirs, autobiography, poetry, and letters Patricia Craig presents an enthralling selection of attitudes to schools and schooling. All manner of institutions are described, from village schools to state comprehensives, charity schools, public schools, private schools and grammar schools, with some (usually) fond reminiscences of primary schools for good measure. But the emphasis is on individual experience - on the playing field, in the classroom, making friends and enemies, encountering inspiring or eccentric schoolmasters. Pupils and teachers have their say, Miss Jean Brodie alongside Dr Arnold, Winston Churchill rubbing shoulders with Nicholas Nickleby. Through it all run the anarchic exploits of the heroes and heroines of the school story - Billy Bunter and the Greyfriars mob, Stalky and Co., William Brown, Tom Brown, and the creations of T.B. Reed and Angela Brazil. Ranging from the sixteenth century to the present day, and focusing on Great Britain and Northern Ireland, this anthology sheds incidental light on attitudes to children, educational systems, and the divisions of British society. It will strike a chord with every pupil, past or present, in revealing the glories and defects of British education. |
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Page 78
... girls could not take off their panama hats because this was not far from the school gates and hatlessness was an offence . Certain departures from the proper set of the hat on the head were over- looked in the case of fourth - form girls ...
... girls could not take off their panama hats because this was not far from the school gates and hatlessness was an offence . Certain departures from the proper set of the hat on the head were over- looked in the case of fourth - form girls ...
Page 136
... girls , all fourth year leavers , beat up — yes , you may well gasp - beat up a second year girl on the way home ... girls was wearing her beret . These girls , I call them girls for want of a better word , these girls shall learn that ...
... girls , all fourth year leavers , beat up — yes , you may well gasp - beat up a second year girl on the way home ... girls was wearing her beret . These girls , I call them girls for want of a better word , these girls shall learn that ...
Page 154
... girls any notion of the wholly unsystematic and confused state of their education . A lively , we wish we could say an exaggerated , sketch of some of its most striking defects is to be found in Mr Bryce's valuable report presented to ...
... girls any notion of the wholly unsystematic and confused state of their education . A lively , we wish we could say an exaggerated , sketch of some of its most striking defects is to be found in Mr Bryce's valuable report presented to ...
Contents
The World of School | 42 |
Customs Anecdotes Incidents | 88 |
At Odds with the System | 138 |
Copyright | |
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