The Oxford Man
Entry posted by caldrail
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There was an obituary in our local paper recently. Bill Slater had passed away at the grand old age of 65. I don't think many people outside the Swindon area knew him, but he was an Oxford man, a rugby player, a stage performer, but most relevant to me, my old history teacher.
I read that small story on the bottom of the page with mixed feelings. In all honesty I wasn't aware of his understated stage career performing the works of Gilbert & Sullivan, and I knew from another source that he'd been wheelchair bound for many years. A part of me wishes that he'd known I was now a keen history buff.
There was a time when I wasn't. As a youth plotting to become a rock drummer and so beat the world into submission, he once heard me play. The year after I left school I helped a friend put together a charity gig at a local sports hall, and also became the drummer for the band we both formed for the occaision (we won Best Instrumental Track). During a rehearsal he'd heard the racket we were making and investigated, sharing a joke about our musical effort. What I found out later was that he'd made a very vocal complaint to the authorities about us. Were we that bad?
That was the problem with Mr Slater. He was a towering individual of strong opinion and character. He was also a little quirky. There was a kid in my year by the name of Chaudrake who always got pulled up by Slater for one reason or another. On one particular day, we waited outside the locked school library on the first floor, a balcony overlooking the quadrangle. Slater appeared beneath us, reached into his pocket, and lobbed the keys into a sub-orbital trajectory. We all turned our heads to watch the keys land on the roof above us. He gritted his teeth, went purple, and shouted "Chaudrake! Why didn't you catch those keys? I'll see you later!"
Anyway, now he's gone, and he'll never know I'm studying history. Probably just as well. He'd only tell me what a complete mess I was making of it. So come my final day, with St Peter making himself scarce, Bill Slater will be there at the Pearly Gates, impatient as ever, demanding to know why my homework had taken a lifetime to hand in.
Examining Examinations
The funny thing is that I see in the media stories of how children are suffering stress because of the school system these days. Apparently the prospect of examinations is too much to bear. What on earth is going on? I used to get tests and exams every other week. No-one slit their wrists over it back then. I notice that the standards of examinations are nothing like what they used to be either. A recent experiment with some kids who took a bogus equivalent examination from the fifties did miserably. No wonder schools are reporting more children than ever getting good grades. The grades just aren't good anymore. I hate to say it, but there's a lot to be said for traditional teaching. Even with psychopathic history teachers.
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