Last week many children started school for the first time – my Facebook feed was full of images of either young children on their first day at school, or those moving from primary to secondary.
Do you remember your first day at school?
I do – 67 years later.
I was quite happy to start school, although my best-friend at the time balled her eyes out all the way there. However, I did get in trouble on my first day for talking when I should have been listening – for those of you who know me, nothing’s changed!
I can even remember the moss green cardigan I was wearing, and the card hung on string around my neck, bearing my name. And for some reason, we were sat on the floor on a large mat, until we were allotted a chair.
My first teacher at Infant school, was Miss Stone, a strict, but fair teacher. I loved school. As an only child, it was wonderful to spend time with other children and do things that I could never have done at home.
The infant school was built on the same land as the Junior school, but with separate playing areas, mostly concrete.
The teacher in my last year at the Junior school was not someone I remember with affection. I have several reasons for feeling this way about her. Miss Johnson, was strict and had very little about her to like – as I recall.
Each morning we had to do a Maths exercise. The book she was used was called ’10 a day Mental Maths’. Miss Johnson asked the questions, we wrote the answers, and then our answers were marked by the person next to us. I was lucky if I got 3 right, so each day I ended up standing on my chair – the prize for getting no more than 3 correct answers.
Not the best way to encourage children to learn; make you feel a fool in front of the rest of the class.
My first run-in with Miss J was on my very first day in her class. She wrote each person’s first name on the board. She misspelt mine. I put my hand up and told her that it was incorrect – she’d written Elizabeth, whereas my name is Lisbeth. She ignored me. I tried so say it was wrong yet again and got sent to the Headmistresses office. I returned with a note telling her that I did know how to spell my own name and that she was wrong. Of course, I didn’t receive an apology.
She certainly wouldn’t cope with the wonderful variety of names that we have in society now.
Sadly, Miss J wasn’t the only teacher who made me feel ‘small’. My ‘A’ level English teacher also shares that honour. He was incredibly sarcastic, and on one occasion particularly put me down in the front of the whole class for owning up to being a Caesarean baby. He was talking about Julius Caesar being one such baby, and he maintained that JC was of weak character because he didn’t have to fight his way into the world.
Being an only child of older parents, I’d been brought up to be honest, respect teachers and not answer back. When he said that ‘of course none of you are Caesarean, are you?’ I owned up that I was, and yet again was made to feel stupid for admitting to that ‘failing’ as he was suggesting it was.
Sadly, I gave up ‘A’ level English, because I didn’t have a great trust in him and at the that time, nor the confidence to stand up to him.
Teachers have a huge impact on their pupils, probably more than many of them recognise. They should consider this, because teenagers are often far more vulnerable than the façade and behaviour they exhibit.
I worked in education for 34 years, and I’m confident I was never knowingly sarcastic to any pupils. I hope I also wasn’t unwittingly mean to them either. Though now knowing what I do about ADHD and Asperger’s, I think I may have come across children with those issues well before the conditions were fully understood. I remember, although not angry, being unable to understand why one little girl was so affected by the sound of the louder instruments in the classroom, and was a little dismissive of her. Now, I would have reacted very differently.
Incredibly, I’m still in contact with three of my ex-pupils. One of them, I taught at Cheltenham Ladies College, where she was learning the harp. We exchange Christmas cards each year. She is now a doctor, married to another doctor and they have two lovely children. The other two were students who I taught at Tewkesbury Comprehensive school nearly 50 years ago. Both went into music-based careers. One has taught piano privately, and is also involved in many different musical activities in the town. The other, who I met for lunch recently, until she retired, worked in special needs in Hong Kong. I’m extremely grateful to still have contact with them.
I in turn, exchange Christmas cards each year with my piano teacher from my time at Music College. Manola, my teacher is only a few years older than me and it’s wonderful to keep in touch with her.
As well as all of those children, give a thought to the teachers, who depending on how long they’ve been teaching are also taking on the responsibility for teaching another group of pupils and impacting on their lives.
Who and what impacted on you at school?