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 30
... never deserve the name of fellowship , nor will women ever fulfil the peculiar duties of their sex , till they become enlightened citizens , till they become free by being enabled to earn their own subsistence , independent of men ; in ...
... never deserve the name of fellowship , nor will women ever fulfil the peculiar duties of their sex , till they become enlightened citizens , till they become free by being enabled to earn their own subsistence , independent of men ; in ...
Page 172
... never a whit in his writing . Besides that his hand is such , that it can hardly be read ; he also writes so false English , that he is neither fit for trade , nor any employment wherein to use his pen .... Moreover , how must this ...
... never a whit in his writing . Besides that his hand is such , that it can hardly be read ; he also writes so false English , that he is neither fit for trade , nor any employment wherein to use his pen .... Moreover , how must this ...
Page 351
... never spoke To us of poetry ; it was purely language , The lovely logic of its tenses and Its accidence that , mutilated , moved you To rage or outrage that I think was not At all times simulated . It would never Do in our days ...
... never spoke To us of poetry ; it was purely language , The lovely logic of its tenses and Its accidence that , mutilated , moved you To rage or outrage that I think was not At all times simulated . It would never Do in our days ...
Contents
The World of School | 42 |
Customs Anecdotes Incidents | 88 |
At Odds with the System | 138 |
Copyright | |
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