Thursday 7 March 2024

Homework!

 

Homework!   


Almost the first homework task we had when we started grammar school was to cover our books. All text books for every subject had to be covered with brown paper – such a cheerful look. Of course, it was to preserve the books, which had to do duty for many years, in school, in school bags, at home; there were many opportunities for damage or loss. Although I’m convinced we covered our text books, it occurs to me to wonder how we knew what subject they covered underneath the paper. Maybe the books were issued to each girl for each subject for the year. Maybe my recall is completely shot!

Harmony, a book on the theory of music, was somehow never returned to school. There are no helpful or interesting scribbles in it, no little mysteries to unravel, nothing to prompt the imagination.

On the fly leaf of each book was a library checkout card, indicating the user and the date of usage, much as public libraries used before the advent of computerisation. Sometimes, notes had been written in the books, though that was strictly forbidden. Occasionally, the scribbled notes would be useful.  

We also had to number all the pages of our exercise books, to discourage us from tearing out pages. No-one explained why.

There were other rules we had to obey. No bottles of ink were to be carried around school. That was a rule I disobeyed, to my shame. The ink bottle I was carrying dropped to the parquet floor, spreading inexorably far and wide. I don’t know who saw or reported it, but the next morning I was summoned to the headmistress’s office to be reprimanded. My punishment was to scrub the floor. I can’t remember if the ink stain was removed – I rather doubt it, but I didn’t carry ink in school after that.

We had to change into house shoes when we arrived at school. They were unflattering, bulbous-toed black affairs and we hated them. Our skirts had to be knee-length, neither above nor below the knee and when we were out of school, we had to wear hats, velour in winter, straw in summer. We were left in no doubt that we were representing the school and it was our job to be good ambassadors. It was considered a grave misdemeanour to be seen without the school hat, though, of course, some risked it, crushing their hats into their bags as soon as they were out of sight of the school. One sixth-former cut a hole in the crown of her hat so that her pony tail could swing free. We thought that very daring. How innocent it all seems now.

Some were more knowing than others. One girl appeared in school one morning in full, heavy make-up, claiming she had mistaken the day and had been getting ready for her Saturday job. She was made to scrub it off. Bearing in mind the amount of orange foundation, it must have been quite a task.

Another girl in my year became pregnant and was banned from school. She was allowed back to take her public examinations but we were not permitted to socialise with her. Perhaps they thought she would corrupt us, or that pregnancy was catching! Poor soul, she must have felt very isolated and scared. She was only 15 or 16 at a time when unmarried mothers were viewed with, at least, disdain and more often, condemnation. I don’t know what became of her or her baby. I expect the baby was put up for adoption, as so often happened. 

Today’s secondary school students are more mature, more aware, but the world they have inherited and must inhabit is more difficult and complex than the one my peers and I had to navigate. I look at my youngest great-grandchildren, the three who are 3, 16 months and 1 year, and wonder and sometimes fear what manner of world will become familiar to them.

34 comments:

  1. Oh, how well I understand your fears!

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    1. I suppose our parents feared for us. There are always challenges.

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  2. I remember covering the books. In our school it was generally done in wallpaper. I don't know why lol.
    As for writing in school we had to learn in pencil and only got to use a fountain pen when our writing was deemed acceptable (whatever that is!). I remember being one of the last to make it but I do get lots of comments on how neat my writing is!
    Things are so different these days. I suppose some of the fears are still the same (though there are lots of different ones). I think kids today are savvier and more aware and perhaps talk about things more.

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    1. One of my grandsons got his 'pen certificate' last year, when he was 7! Handwriting is important, for all sorts of reasons.

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  3. I don't remember ever covering text books, but we had to cover our exercise books with brown paper, though we didn't have to number the pages. I remember in those days, text books could be handed down to the new younger kids each year and most of mine were several years old and quite battered. These days every year the text books need to be new because something has been updated or removed and it costs parents a fortune! to have to buy new instead of using the old.

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    1. Parents don't have to buy text books in UK. Here's what I found when I checked:- Sections 451 and 454 of the Education Act 1996 prohibits schools from charging for education and the supply of materials, books, instruments or other equipment (this would include tablets), during school hours. However, there is no prohibition on asking parents to make voluntary contributions.

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  4. Gosh I'd completely forgotten about the book covering thing. Still in operation at the Nottingham Girls High School on the 1970s. Thankfully, the school uniform rules you described were considerably more relaxed!
    Cheers, Gail.

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    1. I suppose we should have been thankful we didn't have to wear Christ's Hospital uniform!

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  5. You've taken me right back, even to those horrible hats! We didn't have to use brown paper, just cover all books, exercise and text, and write our name and subject on the front - neatly! My mum insisted on brown paper but I was so jealous of those who could use patterned wallpaper or, height of elegance, see through plastic. It just didn't seem fair. xx

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    1. Children today don't know they're born ;-) x x x

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  6. Reading your school life I thought I am reading schools a hundred years ago ! What a difference to mine ! We had no uniforms, the Germans had enough of uniforms after the war and we dressed with what we could find usually Jeans which we got from the American occupation. I don't remember from where we got our books, but I know that we also had to cover them with paper. My mother did it for me as I hated to do "dress" a book and the result looked accordingly. We never wore hats depending the weather you covered your head with what was available. In primary school we were 80 pupils in one class, the schools were in ruins, and we were housed in metal shanties, 3 pupils per bench. In secondary school it was a real school meanwhile repaired and rebuilt, but no uniforms, and still not up to day. A few private schools have tried it but it was not well seen, only boarding schools could do it, but the children changed clothes when they left the school to go outside. The result, we both became "normal" women !

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    1. 80 children per class!
      I can understand the antipathy to uniforms after the war.
      Covering books seems to have been quite standard. I wonder when it stopped, if it has!

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  7. Senior school was so very different in our times, so many rules, ands the uniform, we had a deputy headmistress, who took the role of policing the uniform standards to new highs. But on the whole my memories are happy ones.

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    1. My headmistress was a martinet and an academic snob.

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  8. Oh yes, I remember the backing of school books too, we were allowed to use wallpaper or wrapping paper. I still have one of my exercise books which is backed in Holly Hobbie wrapping paper. I seem to remember backing text books too. Life was definitely much simpler back then, and though some things have changed for the better, some things definitely haven't!

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    1. Holly Hobbie - how sweet:-) It was a simpler life, though it didn't seem so at the time.

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  9. Hi Janice - yes I remember my school days and the various parts of the uniform we had to have ... thank you for writing this up - interesting to read another approach. Your great grandchildren - I wonder what's ahead for them ... I hope happiness - cheers Hilary

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    1. Uniform was so expensive and there were no PTA secondhand opportunities. In any case, secondhand would have met with disapproval from the school. Times have changed in that respect, fortunately.

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  10. HaHa! I did'nt go to Grammer school..l went to
    secondary school...failed my 'eleven plus' got
    my name wrong...! :(.
    So we did'nt have books, we had small blackboards,
    with sticks of chalk...with a rubber, to erase any
    work, not needed...!
    I was always in the top form..starting at X-A-B-C_D...
    I hated school, from the day l started, till the day
    l finished...Went off to Poole Tech. for two years, to
    educate myself..four O's and three A's later...Job done! :0).

    And yes! Today’s secondary school students are more
    mature...They can buy drugs a lot easier and cheaper,
    buy knives from a lot more sources...enflick more
    threatening violence, and get away with it...
    Bring back the birch l say...and the death penalty while
    were at it...! HeHe! "Nuff Said"...!
    ✨ 🎼✨ 🎼✨🎶✨🎼✨🎶✨🎼✨🎶✨🎼✨

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    1. School is not the place for everyone. Parents were always surprised when I said that at parent-teacher evenings. Education is for life and ongoing.

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  11. We had to cover our books as well. We used grocery bags from the grocery store and did it ourselves. It gave us the opportunity to decorate our covers and sign them. We were big about signing things.
    I went to public school, so we never had to wear uniforms. We also had a girl get pregnant, but she hid it until graduation.

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    1. I suppose it preserved the books to some extent. Now, there are transparent book covers - more durable than paper!

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  12. All familiar stuff in N Z too: uniforms, covering books, girls pregnant at high school (although to be fair the ones i remember being pregnant at school had been sent to our 'public' school from a private religion based school.) Public school in NZ means genuinely public, open to all and paid for by the state. Covering standard exercise books possibly served to differentiate them (imagine sitting down to mark a pile of 80 books!) and gave kids opportunity to individualize in an environment where conformity was generally insisted upon.

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    1. Conformity and uniformity and how so many tried to assert their individuality and independence.

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  13. I remember have no to cover exercise books too.......a task I hated.
    A girl in my sisters grammar school became pregnant and I'm pretty sure her baby was adopted - it was almost the norm then wasn't it.
    Alison in Wales x

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    1. Barry's cousin adopted the baby of a school-age girl, who later contacted her mother. They became great friends and remain so. I don't know quite how his cousin feels about that!

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  14. I can identify with all of this from my school.
    My wife said that a girl in her biology class became pregnant. They were doing the theory, while she was doing the practical.

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    1. I wonder if she passed her biology exam?

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  15. This is a nice memory for me, covering school-issued books with brown paper the first night home after the start of school. I always enjoyed it due to my arts and crafts leaning. I remember in later grades you could buy the pre-marked sheets of paper to help with the folding and do a neat job but we didn't have the money for such indulgences :) When I read of others' experiences like wearing uniforms and 80 children to a class after the war I am reminded to be grateful for my relatively easy experience and good memories of my schools. I fully agree with your reply to another commenter that school is not for everyone. When I think of the kids who struggled (and those who still do) to fit in, it seems like punishment, not help.

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    1. For many, school is something to be endured, and life doesn't really start for them until they can leave.

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  16. We had a similar system here, down to the library checkout thing and all. Ours was a stamp on the fly leaf rather than an actual card. And the preferred covering was in blue, although as secondary school progressed we were able to use the paper of our choice. It still remained a dreaded task though! xxx

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    1. I only remember doing it in the first year of the grammar school. Perhaps it became so routine that it no longer had an impact! x x x

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  17. Memories, memories ...
    I too remember covering our books either with brown paper or sometimes scraps of old wallpaper rolls were used.

    All the best Jan

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