On the way home this evening the only things I could think about were school-related.<\/p>\n
Many rambling thoughts.<\/p>\n
Much bizarreness – especially when I calculate that I went to school for a mere dozen years.<\/p>\n
I can’t stress enough that I had a great time at school.<\/p>\n
Too great, perhaps.<\/p>\n
I cruised through it; didn’t do any work, didn’t study, didn’t do homework, didn’t put anything in to it.<\/p>\n
Those many school reports that said ‘Could do better’ were so right!<\/p>\n
I just wasn’t motivated, it’s that simple.<\/p>\n
I failed to see any of it as important.<\/p>\n
It didn’t engage me.<\/p>\n
I mean, how is a growing up, hormone-riddled, barely-constrained country boy with a sense of adventure larger than the continent (or incontinent) of Asia going to see any kind of benefit in his action-packed, fun-filled universe from the dust-jacketed titles of History, Geography, Science etc.?<\/p>\n
This isn’t meant as an indictment of my past teachers; it’s much more a dig at the teaching methods of the day – the ‘sit down, shut up, get your books out at page 25 and read…’ methodology.<\/p>\n
And also a gentle criticism that no-one ever took the trouble to explain the relevance – or the links – between those subjects and the real world.<\/p>\n
Admittedly my parental upbringing (or abject lack thereof) missed the enormously significant part it should have played in the ‘making things significant in the game of life’ game.<\/p>\n
Which is one reason why music played (and continues to play) such a large part in my life – as a singer, a musician and a listener – it was one of my escaping pleasures, it had relevance.<\/p>\n
So too with literature.<\/p>\n
As a child I was precociously well read, far better than my peers – but only because we had an extensive library in the house and I didn’t really enjoy television and there’s only so much fun to be had building dams, riding ponies, sailing my dingy, designing and making tree-houses, climbing trees, fashioning hides in the woods and (periodically) running away from home.<\/p>\n
In fact I read everything in the library.<\/p>\n
Everything.<\/p>\n
Schools though…<\/p>\n
Forge Side Junior School, in the small sub-town of Forge Side, part of the larger industrial town of Blaenavon.<\/p>\n
This was my second place of education (after the swiftly left behind St Michael’s Convent), it was an early Victorian gothic monstrosity that occupied the centre of a small mining community (as you’d expect from the town’s name).<\/p>\n
It too is no longer a school.<\/p>\n
I’m 2 for 0 here!<\/p>\n
Llanarth Court Preparatory School, Llanarth – an enormous Grade II listed manor house set in 300 acres.<\/p>\n
Llanarth Court was my third visit to the world of education, it was owned and run by an order of Dominican monks.<\/p>\n
It is also not a school and not a monastery now.<\/p>\n
3 for 0!<\/p>\n
In fact it’s now a secure psychiatric hospital, no ironic comments please – I’ve heard them all.<\/em><\/p>\n Then came Grofield Secondary Modern, Abergavenny.<\/p>\n Also no longer a school.<\/p>\n 4 for 0 and I’m going for a clean sweep!<\/p>\n And finally…<\/p>\n King Henry VIII Abergavenny…<\/p>\n I failed with that one, it’s still rocking on strongly.<\/p>\n 4 for 1 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not too bad.<\/p>\n But the distinguishing feature isn’t that King Henry VIII was the place that faced down an independently-minded adolescent<\/p>\n It was the place where I found teachers who made connections; effortlessly tried – and succeeded – in bringing everyday meaning to educational topics.<\/p>\n Bertie Hamer, Doc White, Judge Jefferies, Ray Gravell.<\/p>\n Teachers who achieved what hadn’t been – up until then – attempted; they engaged me, made me think.<\/p>\n I learned scholastic things from these people, but the most important lesson learned was that it is important to put in; the process of getting out is merely a by-product.<\/p>\n The first time I returned to full-time education I was determined to ‘put in’ and not ‘get out’; I wanted to contribute, be an active participant.<\/p>\n When I was described by my tutor at graduation as ‘enjoyably challenging’ I beamed for days.<\/p>\n Not because I’m an awkward sod (though The Lovely Soph may snigger at this because sometimes I might be).<\/p>\n But because I’d got so much out, so effortlessly…<\/p>\n By putting something in.<\/p>\n So I wonder these days – this evening on my way home, to be precise…<\/p>\n Is that why my earlier schooldays were so unproductive?<\/p>\n Because I wasn’t allowed to engage (because that, certainly, was the schooling model of the time – that interaction was not permitted)?<\/p>\n Intriguing questions.<\/p>\n Here’s another intriguing question.<\/p>\n These days interaction and dialogue in schools is encouraged – to the level where it is seen by many pupils as their right, and one which they exercise.<\/p>\n So why does this country now produce a far higher proportion of illiterate children (per capita of population), than it did in the 60s?<\/p>\n Or the 70s?<\/p>\n Answers please, on a used five pound note.<\/p>\n B<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the way home this evening the only things I could think about were school-related. Many rambling thoughts. Much bizarreness – especially when I calculate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}