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 97
... happened in the time when the boys lived under ' dames ' in the boarding - houses . As the school life has become better regulated and the care of the boys has come more and more into the hands of the masters , the discipline of the ...
... happened in the time when the boys lived under ' dames ' in the boarding - houses . As the school life has become better regulated and the care of the boys has come more and more into the hands of the masters , the discipline of the ...
Page 313
... happened . I have the other boys to con- sider . But I don't want to be too hard on you . I want you to start again . " So he sat down there and then and wrote me a letter of recommendation to any future employer , a corking good letter ...
... happened . I have the other boys to con- sider . But I don't want to be too hard on you . I want you to start again . " So he sat down there and then and wrote me a letter of recommendation to any future employer , a corking good letter ...
Page 358
... happened , a place of decision and disaster , but it could be contained between the pages of books and tidied away to make room for the real world of piano lessons and dinner tickets and home at ten to four . The products of Australia ...
... happened , a place of decision and disaster , but it could be contained between the pages of books and tidied away to make room for the real world of piano lessons and dinner tickets and home at ten to four . The products of Australia ...
Contents
The World of School | 42 |
Customs Anecdotes Incidents | 88 |
At Odds with the System | 138 |
Copyright | |
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