Education in Britain and after the Second World War will have improved some, it later became clear to me and others I know that we were being taught to become just so clever and were educated quite poorly. As those like me who were slow starters just got pushed to the back of the class?
I left school in December 1963, I was then fifteen. My parents had been asked to visit the school with myself and meet the head master Mr Hall.
After the meeting, we all stood in the passage outside Mr Halls study, his parting words to my parents was more or less,
Your son is only fit to sweep the streets.
He may well have been correct but my very first job was as a pottato picker in winter, that was a very hard job!
http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2009/02/tysons-of-5-dryden-streetliverpool.html
May and its spring time in the UK. I note that my old school was upgraded to a High School, I hope the education is better now?
Mail on the subject from a pal who is about seven years older than myself , my own mail to him on the subject is below his own.
That's the sort of stuff people want to read, its right from the dark ages and was first illuminated when Pink Floyd wrote, 'Just another brick in the wall on their Dark Side of the Moon album, still a top seller and a classic. That would make the perfect opening for a book on the best parts of the rest of your life.
My own progress through school was much the same, I also failed that 11 plus so went to a very old Secondary Modern that was due to be pulled down as a brand new school was being built closer to where I lived. We moved into that in my second year. The headmaster was a welsh man called Percy Williams who was cunning-linguist (pun), he was an Esperanto nut so we were all supposed to learn this most useless of languages which wasted at least one period every day. As in your case, I was stuck in a C form right up to the last 6 months of school where as a bit of a leg up to help you get a job they stuck a few of us in a B form for the last 6-months.
I only started to learn after school and had to do three years of night school just to catch up to those who had spent time in A or B forms had when they left. I had to do those to get a free day at college paid for by the company, they were called PTC1, PTC2, and PTC3 which if passed allowed you to go in at the NC1 level of the National Certificate course.
I did fail but they gave me one more chance so I went into the City and Guilds course into C1 the first year which I passed. However, I had then been working for four years so I would have been almost 20 and was working on my own as what they called an improver, this involved traveling so it was very difficult to get back to night school, (the free day school had been dropped by now) so reluctantly I had to drop the night school too as it was impossible to get there in time while working away.
A youthfull Notty pictured here on the South Coast in 1963?
The last straw in a rotten system came though when we left school and the Youth Employment Officer told me I was not fit for an engineering job so it would be best to go into the mill. We were both shafted mate.
By the way, in our school it was the teacher who would administer the punishment for minor stuff, you would get a ruler on the hand for a small offence, or a pump (takkie) on the arse for more serious stuff. They only sent you to the headmaster for a caning on the arse if you argued with the teacher.
Notty.
Good point but that would be a very long story, as I have made so many mistakes!
Mr Hall, my headmaster and also maths teacher was really a rubbish teacher, I was caned most Monday mornings for not having done my maths home work, I and others would have to line up in front of the class and be humiliated but I made it
hard for him. Hall was a short guy, so I held my hand up high, the canes impact was less then!
Today that punishment would not happen, it did me no good anyway, just allowed the teacher to vent his anger?
Then the system was wrong, from primary school we went and did the 11 Plus exam, those with a pass mark went to Grammer School, those like me with a fail mark went into a lower school, named the Secondary Modern, each years intake was then divided by the pupils ability, A B C D, I of course was in the D class.
I bucked the trend when I left school though, the Liverpool College of Building had lecturers, not teachers with no ability, I remember one such man at night school, our second year I think, I named him Mr Polo as he ate Polo mints as he limped around the classroom with his gammy leg.
The first night of that term was a short one, it was all maths and such, he said to us all................. If you feel your wasting your time here, please don’t waste mine and come back next week to waste more. (words to that effect)
He also let us into a secret, learn the formulas, write those down in the margins when your in an exam and even if you get the answer wrong and the formula is correct, you will get a pass mark.
This guy was my kind of guy, that year at exams, a paper which we probably had one and a half hours to finish? I was all done in about twenty five minutes and went and asked can I now go home? He quietly asked that I go back to my seat and pretend to still be busy, my early departure could rattle the others? I passed that paper and also the next years.
Year four and then at a one day release at the Liverpool College of Building, I passed the London City og Guilds examination for Carpentry and Joinary with a distinction, this was the same young guy that Mr Hall could not teach!
Roy
(just another brick in the wall)
My old school, Deyes Lane, Maghull, near Liverpool, England. The picture was taken about two years ago.
I left school in December 1963, I was then fifteen. My parents had been asked to visit the school with myself and meet the head master Mr Hall.
After the meeting, we all stood in the passage outside Mr Halls study, his parting words to my parents was more or less,
Your son is only fit to sweep the streets.
He may well have been correct but my very first job was as a pottato picker in winter, that was a very hard job!
http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2009/02/tysons-of-5-dryden-streetliverpool.html
May and its spring time in the UK. I note that my old school was upgraded to a High School, I hope the education is better now?
Mail on the subject from a pal who is about seven years older than myself , my own mail to him on the subject is below his own.
Roy,
I passed these three years so got my day off at college and entered this course but realized half way through that I would never pass it, again the maths let me down, just could not grasp what some of the formulas were for and they never explained.
You've given me an idea, I think I may start my book with those remarks from that bitch who was really a recruitment officer for the mills.
Good old days hey, remember those lines from Pink Floyd, 'We don't need no education.'
Notty,
The story of my life and its mistakes?
hard for him. Hall was a short guy, so I held my hand up high, the canes impact was less then!
He also let us into a secret, learn the formulas, write those down in the margins when your in an exam and even if you get the answer wrong and the formula is correct, you will get a pass mark.
There were two Deyes Lane teachers who worked with me and I did well with their support, Mr Halligan, the wood work teacher, I was normally in the top few on marks in his class. Also the Vice headmaster, was it Mr Barker? he had pale red hair and lived near Crosby. He took us for class now and again and taught Gardening sometimes, odd subject? It was he who gave me a decent school leaving refernce and one that probably got me my job at Tysons builders in 5 Dryden Street, Liverpool.
(just another brick in the wall)
