To Sir With Love

  “Next day I tried to talk to her about it, but she’d just sit and cry and not say a word. I couldn’t seem to get near her, somehow.” The tears were a steady stream down her face now.

  “About her staying out late, have you any idea where she went?”

  “I know she goes over to her Nan’s, my mother, over in Grover Street, but Nan wouldn’t keep her there so late.”

  “Have you been to see your mother?”

  “Well, no. She’s not too friendly with me at the moment. People have been telling her things about me; some folks around here seem to have nothing better to do than gossip about others.”

  “Pamela has got the idea that you don’t care about her any more.”

  “Oh, Sir, how could she think that? I’ve been worrying myself silly about her. She’s a big girl, you know what I mean, and some people think she is much older than she is, eighteen or nineteen maybe. I thought that perhaps, because of what she’s seen, she might have gone and done something silly.”

  Good Lord, I thought, what am I supposed to say to all this; the more Mrs. Dare told me of her difficulties, the more uncomfortable I felt I really knew nothing about the lives of these people, for only a few short months ago I was a complete stranger both to them and to the district. What could I do now? The woman was older than myself and I did not feel either equipped or experienced enough to advise her or even her daughter on so delicate a matter. I could not see that my visit would really change anything. Pamela was, as her mother remarked, a big girl—a young woman really—and from the way she had dealt with Denham and with the two old ladies in the train, I had little doubt that she could look after herself reasonably well. Then why was I here? I looked at the mother’s distraught face and remarked lamely: “I don’t think Pamela’s likely to do anything silly.”

  “One can’t be too careful round about here, Mr. Braithwaite, and with her staying out late and that, anything might happen. I came to you because I felt sure she’d stop at home if you asked her to.”

  Gillian was right, I shouldn’t have come. I suddenly felt angry with myself for being so short-sighted; my conceit in overestimating my importance to the children had led to this, and I was sobered by the thoughts which now crowded my mind. What would the other children think or say if they knew of my visit to Pamela’s home; would Pamela tell them that I had called and what reason was she likely to give for my visit? Any chatter about a teacher and his girl students, no matter how unfounded, would be viewed unfavorably, and in the mouth of someone like Weston could assume grave proportions. The sooner I was out of this the better.

  “Let’s call Pamela in, shall we?” I said to Mrs. Dare. I did not quite know what I’d say to her, but the idea was to say something quickly and leave; I’d try not to make this kind of mistake again. Pamela came in and sat beside her mother, and I took the plunge.

  “Pamela, your mother has told me about what happened, and I think I understand how you feel, how you both feel; but in spite of that, I can’t see that you are doing any good by staying out late and making your mother anxious. When you are outside the school what you do is really not my business, but as you both have asked me to intervene, let me say that I would like to feel that your behavior outside of school is as commendable and ladylike as I have always found it in the classroom.”

  I was being deliberately severe and pedagogic; she’d not want to talk about this when I was through.

  “Let’s put first things first. You owe your mother the duty of courtesy, much more than you do to your teachers, and I would like to feel that you are not neglectful of that duty. Most families occasionally have their problems, and they manage to solve them in due course; try not to create others unnecessarily. Remember, Pamela, I’m depending on you—we’re both depending on you to play the game from now on; I don’t need to tell you of the risks you run on these streets late at night.”

  I stood up. I’d done what they both wanted, I supposed. “Well, I must push off now, Mrs. Dare,” I said. Then I turned to Pamela.

  “Can I depend on you to let your mother know where you are whenever you think you’ll be out a bit late?”

  “Yes, Sir,” she replied quietly.

  With that I made my adieus and left. The rest was up to them. Mrs. Dare would probably be more careful in future and Pamela would soon enough view adult conduct in different terms; but in the ensuing weeks I would keep my ear to the ground, just in case. On my way to the bus stop I made a point of keeping a sharp lookout for familiar faces, and when I was finally safely settled on the train at Liverpool Street, I breathed a prayer of thanks.

  Chapter

  Seventeen

  THE HALF-YEARLY REPORT OF the Students’ Council was on November 15th, and was one of the important days in the calendar of Greenslade School. I had heard quite a deal about these occasions and became as excited as the children as the day approached. It was entirely their day, arranged, presented and controlled by them. I observed the activities of my class as they prepared for it, noting with pride the business-like way in which tasks were allocated and fitted into a neat program. There were whispered conferences with members of other classes in the arrangement of it.

  On that day there was no assembly. The children arrived smartly dressed and polished, and Miss Joseph and Denham, who seemed to be the important officials for the occasion, moved about among their colleagues ensuring that each one was ready to play his (or her) part.

  A bell was rung at 10 a.m. and everyone trooped into the auditorium to sit together in classes. Miss Joseph and Denham, the two most senior students, sat on the stage, one on each side of Mr. Florian, who, as soon as everyone was seated and silent, stood and addressed the school.

  He spoke at length, reiterating the aims and policy of the school and of the important contribution each child could make to the furtherance of those aims. He gave praise wherever it was indicated, but insisted that there was yet a great deal to be done, by themselves, towards a general improvement in conduct, cleanliness and the pursuit of knowledge. As I listened I realized that this man was in no way remote from his school; his remarks all showed that he identified himself with it and everyone in it. He then wished them success with the Council Meeting and left the stage to tremendous applause.

  Things now moved quickly into gear. First, Miss Joseph stood up, and gave a short explanation of the Council’s purpose and its activities. Each class would report, through its representatives, on the studies pursued during the half year which began after Easter, a representative having been chosen for each subject. When all the classes had completed their reports a panel of teachers would be invited to occupy the stage and answer questions from the body of the hall on matters arising out of the various reports. The selection of the panel, as with everything else, was entirely at the discretion of the children and no members of the staff knew either how many or which teachers would be invited to sit.

  The reports began with the lowest or youngest class first. These were mainly twelve-year-olds who had joined the school the previous summer. Most of them were shy and rather frightened at standing up before the entire school, but nevertheless they managed it creditably; they had been newly introduced to the difficulties of seeking information for themselves, so their report was understandably rather short.

  Class after class was represented, and it was obvious that with each succeeding term there was a marked development in their ability to express themselves. Much of the work was rather elementary, but to them it loomed large because they understood it and something of its relationship of themselves. Throughout all the reports, the emphasis was on what they understood rather than on what they were expected to learn.

  When the turn of my class came I sat up anxiously. From the list he held in his hand, Denham called out the names of the representatives, together with the subjects on which they would report.

  Potter

  ??
? Arithmetic

  Sapiano

  — Nature Study

  Miss Pegg and Jackson

  — Geography

  Miss Dare and Fernman

  — Physiology

  Miss Dodds

  — History

  Denham

  — P.T. and Games

  Miss Joseph

  — Domestic Science

  I felt terribly pleased and proud to see the confident courtesy with which Denham used the term “Miss” in addressing each of the senior girls; I felt sure that this would in itself be something for the younger ones to aim at, a sort of badge of young adulthood. As their names were called they walked up to the stage and took their seats with commendable gravity.

  Miss Joseph then gave a short address. She said that their lessons had all had a particular bias toward the brotherhood of mankind, and that they had been learning through each subject how all mankind was interdependent in spite of geographical location and differences in color, race and creed. Then she called on Potter.

  Potter went on to speak of the work they had done on weights and measures; of the relationship between the kilogram and the pound, the meter and the foot. He said that throughout the world one or other of those two methods was either in use or understood, and that it was a symbol of the greater understanding which was being accomplished between peoples.

  Sapiano spoke of the study the class had made of pests, especially black rot on wheat, boll weevil on cotton, and the Colorado beetle on potatoes. He showed how many countries had pooled their knowledge and results of research on the behavior, breeding habits and migration of these pests, and were gradually reducing the threat they represented to these important products.

  Miss Pegg and Jackson divided the report on Geography between them. Jackson spoke first on the distribution of mineral deposits and vegetable produce over the earth’s surface, how a country rich in one was often deficient in the other; and of the interchange and interdependence which inevitably followed. Miss Pegg dealt with human relationships, stressing the problems facing the post-war world for feeding, clothing and housing its populations. She also made a reference to the thousands of refugees, stateless and unwanted; and to the efforts and programs of U.N.I.C.E.F.

  Fernman as usual had a trump card up his sleeve. When called he made a signal to someone off-stage, and Welsh and Alison appeared bearing a skeleton between them, together with a sort of gallows. When this arrangement had been set up there was the skeleton hanging from a hook screwed into the top of its skull, gently revolving at the end of a cord. This was somewhat in the nature of comic relief, and the school showed its approval by laughing uproariously. But levity soon evaporated when Fernman began to speak: his voice was clear and precise and he had a strong sense of the dramatic. Calmly he told them that it was a female skeleton; that was a fact and could easily be proved. But he could not say with any assurance whether she had been Chinese or French or German or Greek; nor could he say if she had been brown or white or a mixture of both. And from that, he said, the class had concluded that basically all people were the same; the trimmings might be different but the foundations were all laid out according to the same blueprint. Fernman was wonderful; he had them eating out of his hand.

  Miss Dare’s contribution was something of an anticlimax after Fernman’s performance, and she seemed to realize it. She spoke about the problems which all humanity has to face in terms of sickness and disease, and of the advantages gained by interchange of knowledge, advice and assistance.

  Miss Dodd reported on the period of History the class had studied—the Reformation in England. She told of the struggles of men of independent spirit against clerical domination and of their efforts to break from established religious traditions. From those early beginnings gradually grew the idea of tolerance for the beliefs and cultures of others, and the now common interest in trying to study and understand those cultures.

  Denham’s report was a bit of a shock. He severely criticized the general pattern of P.T. and games, emphasizing the serious limitations of space obtaining and the effect of that limitation on their games activities. He complained that the P.T. was ill-conceived and pointless, and the routine monotonous; he could see no advantage in doing it; a jolly good game was far better. Apparently he was voicing the opinions of all the boys, for they cheered him loudly.

  When the reports were over, Denham called two children at random from the audience and asked them to write the name of each teacher, including the Head on a slip of paper. These slips were folded and placed in a hat, juggled vigorously, and then withdrawn one by one. The names were called:

  Mr. Weston

  Mrs. Dale-Evans

  Miss Phillips

  Denham and Miss Joseph led the others off the stage and the teachers took their seats, Weston big and bushily untidy between the two women. Then the questioning began.

  I believe I would have gone a long way to see what followed; it was an experience which I shall not easily forget.

  The questions were mostly from the two top classes, probably because the young children were either too timid or too uninformed to formulate their questions. The teachers had no briefing, and were often caught out stammering in their indecision. But here again, I received a big surprise. The frilly, seemingly brainless Miss Euphemia Phillips proved to be the coolest and best informed of the three. She dealt with questions put to her with candor and authority, and would often intervene skillfully to assist one of the others without causing embarrassment.

  Weston cut a very ridiculous figure. In the face of Denham’s blunt criticism and Fernman’s adroit questioning, he found himself completely nonplussed and tried to bluster his way out with a show of offended dignity. He could not effectively support the P.T. exercises, for which he was partly responsible, as having any definite physical advantage. Denham was a trained boxer, and insisted that such exercises were only advantageous if practiced daily and for more sustained periods; P.T. twice weekly for twenty minutes was a waste of time, he asserted.

  Once again Miss Phillips took the reins and her stock promptly shot up a hundredfold. She reminded the school that every subject, including P.T. and games, had been carefully considered and fitted into the teaching timetable so that each student received maximum benefit from it. The school with its limited facilities must be considered in terms of the greatest good for the greatest number, and it would be beyond anyone’s powers to please everybody.

  “Some of you,” she concluded, fixing Denham with innocent eyes, “are fortunate in your own fine physical development and do not really need the few meager helpings of P.T. and games which this school can offer; try to remember that there are others for whom our program is ideally suited. It may be that some of you older boys might even be able to help in that respect.”

  Denham was not to be put off by these sugary remarks, and rose in reply.

  “Then why do we have to do P.T.? Why don’t they take only the kids who need it? The rest of us can have a game of football or something, ’stead of doing a lot of daft things that’s no good to us!”

  This was a poser, but she came right back at him, her baby-blue eyes twinkling in her delight at this crossing of staves.

  “Let’s say it is as much an exercise of the mind as it is of the body, Denham. The whole timetable in this school is meant to help you in the world after you leave here, and doing what you are told in spite of not liking it, is part of the training. I feel sure that you will see the point in that.”

  That stopped him. Poor Denham knew that he’d been outwitted but he could do nothing about it and sat looking rather rueful, while Miss Phillips’ smile broadened; this frilly, innocent-looking puss had gobbled her canary without leaving the tiniest feather. I began to understand how it was that so slight a creature could cope so effectively with her class.
br />   Soon after this, as the morning ended, the Head went on to the stage and closed the proceedings, expressing his pride in all the children and his deep appreciation of their efforts.

  Chapter

  Eighteen

  THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH WAS Gillian’s birthday. On the Monday evening I had been to Foyle’s and bought her a book of poems; it was in my briefcase and I planned to give it to her at lunchtime on her birthday. During mid-morning recess on Tuesday she came into my classroom, where I was, as usual, surrounded by a group of chattering youngsters; on seeing her I excused myself from them and greeted her.

  “May I see you for a moment, Mr. Braithwaite?” Most of the youngsters’ inquisitive ears were obviously tuned in to her remarks.

  “Certainly, Miss Blanchard.” We walked to the rear of the class out of earshot of the smiling, whispering group.

  “Got a surprise for you.”

  “Oh, yes? What is it?”

  “Thursday is my birthday.”

  “No surprise, I already knew.”

  “I’ve ordered dinner for two at the ‘Poisson d’Or’. Special, with wine.”

  “Sounds good. Where’s the ‘Poisson d’Or’?”

  “It’s a new place in Chelsea. Supposed to be very good; you know—très élégant.”

  “Good, I’m fond of très élégant.”

  “That’s fine then. We can see Paisan at the Academy and dine afterwards.”