A letter from the headmaster

Paul Griffin

Dear Major Lash, Thank you for your letter of notice for Roger to leave at the end of the coming term, and for your 'comments. It was an interesting evening we spent talking things over. Your half-hour survey of Roger's career at school, illustrated by quotations from all his masters' reports, was a tribute to your filing system, and was certainly well designed to teach me my job. We ourselves do keep records, but not like yours. It had never occurred to me to attach such profound significance to some of my colleagues' comments and placings.

I quite see that Roger has failed to come up to your expectations. You brought me to the edge of my chair as you described the moment when he slipped from fifth to tenth in his Mathematics set, and obtained only a grade five at (C1 Level. That may as rail suggest have been the crucial stage in his degeneration. After all, both you and your wife had been coaching him all through the holidays, so how could he have any excuse for I just wonder whether the boy might have been exhausted. or whether he might in fact not have the high intelligence with which you credit him. We talk a lot these days about co-operation between school and parents, but perhaPs there are still times when the best co-operation a parent can give is to leave matters to the school. This, after all, is what happened in the days for which you so frequent'Y Y°°long, when cold baths and plenty ofllicit beer made you the man Yo

are. •

Things have changed, of course. Team games are no longer regarded as entitled to claim every boy's exclusive attention, a fact for which I know Roger is secretlY grateful. He is not the fine all-round games player you were, and though he does his best he feels your scorn that he is unable to match your achievements. Yet I had a letrLer from an old lady the other day, who

th

told me Roger's regular visits to he had helped to bring her roughr desolation of her son's death. the B other no fi gchoturbs ee cal utosled iy onuewth arte ctahri your comment. You said this Was, all very ,fine, but you did not sena Roger to school to comfort 010 ladies. It was at that point that you made it quite clear to me that, unless I gave you an assurance that swi teycould e n t rabnrci en gs tRaongdearr du py teou uwn tremove o g give yhoiuSadly,yma. n such I assurance.ha d to refuse f In view of the difficultY discussing with you why you send Roger to school, I can only aPPeai to You in the name of his personal medicine

,welfare to reconsider your decision. ,welfare to reconsider your decision.

rloger is a delightful boy, devoted

to his friends and to his school. When he loses that hunted look he should be quite capable of gaining from us all that you gained yourself; indeed, some would say rather more He will pass one or two 'A' levels, and will hold some sort of responsible post. He will grow in, understanding of God and man, and when he leaves should be able

tO lead a use and happy, life. o If You remove him, and send him a tutorial establishment, he will, as. You rightly say, be able to devote his entire time to passing his 'A' Levels, This a may be useful for ll older boy who needs to meet the rather unimaginative requirements se 1% t some

td who, professional bodies, once he has achieved thck

requirements, is perfectly eaPable of si flourishing in a profesnql. But please, Major, not at seventeen, It is a curious fact that at the very • i.salnment when many parents are i'„eginning to understand the mean„"g of education as never before, a ProPortion of those who have ernbarked on it are being led by an eonnaornics-crazed world to lose all jA3tiurl of what they really wanted a the first place. Frequently, from all sorts of school, we see unhappy Y°ung men and women, confident bill nothing except that they have .4en eir hard done by or misled by kn

elders. Some parents that I °.w vvould cheerfully surrender ears to have balanced and o.ontented offspring. Yet here, Ma

Jal Lash, you have one; and you 115troble, and do your best to make ontrn, feel insufficient. In the tr,114ringing of children, there seems

no justice.

of we are fond of Roger. He is fond sufrus, and of you. Can you not sfa`er Your original decision to nd for a final year, rather than

nn to a place you

quout heard Wh Over a friend's dining table., f4Y try to force him into failure? for` rernains for me to thank you eor,Ylpur careful calculation of the a 0°1/lie cost of each 'A' Level for

such as Roger. If schools sold

YourLevels as a grocer sells tea, i'llor figures should indeed make roern feel very sad. I find them sad Yself; but not for quite the same eason.

Pa

ol Griffin is a retired headmaster