Social Studies - 1969

Yesterday's post started me thinking about my old school days, so I thought I would continue down that road tonight. I should warn however, that if you are one of those "Seventh Heaven" types of mother, you should click on my photo blog instead!

The incident referred to in last night's post happened when I was attending what was then regarded as one of the best schools in Wales. In reality, it's only claim to fame is an Olympic gold medallist, a second rate rugby union player who no one would remember and Windsor Davis, the Sergeant-Major in the old British comedy series, "It ain't 'arf hot mum".

Oh yes - it did also produce one of Britain's biggest drug dealers, who is in prison after being convicted of murder and assault. Ironically the teachers used to point to him as a model pupil, which just goes to show how astute they were.

However, this incident happened in another school - a school far less fashionable but one I am glad to have attended. I learned more in that "second-rate" school than in any other.

It was 1969, I was thirteen and the world was changing. The school recognised this and rather than trying to pretend it wasn't happening, or follow the great British and American tradition of keeping anything to do with kids in the dark-ages, we were actively encouraged to think about these changes. In came "Social Studies". The idea was good - the execution however, was not.

Basically, Social Studies was presented by any teacher who happened to be free. Normally a topic for debate would be agreed upon and the teacher would then pop outside for a quick smoke while the kids talked amongst themselves.

We used to pick topics according to which teacher would be in charge. For example, if it was, 'Sarge' who was the boy's PE teacher and a former Sergeant in the army who had swapped his rifle for a cane - we would pick homosexuality.

To give you an idea why, 'Sarge' was also the Career Advisor, selected on the basis that no other teacher wanted to be lumbered with the job. One day, tongue in cheek, I told him that I wanted to be a hairdresser or a ballet dancer. He looked at me in disgust and asked, "What's the matter boy - you one of them bloody poofters?"

If the Religious Instruction teacher took the class we would choose something that we knew would get right up his nose. For example, "If God exists, why did he allow Vietnam to happen?" or "Why did God create people of different colours? If he is all-knowing, he should have known it would cause problems"

Interestingly, although we would often choose topics for a "bit of a laugh" they often developed into intelligent debate.

Student teachers were our favourite targets and when it came to young female student teachers - we always picked the hot topic of the time - sex before marriage.

Faced with a class of 13 year old boys and girls, the student teacher would normally say something along the lines of, "Oh right. Oh. Ok. Who wants to start?" Bad move. Some young smart-arse would be sure to say, "Want to start what Miss? Sex before marriage?" or "Do you believe in sex before marriage Miss?" There was never a right way for her to answer that last question - and we knew it!

One teacher however got her own back and answered that question by saying, "Not if it keeps the guests waiting." Miss Hayes then proceeded to call our bluff by finding out how much we knew about sex.

She particularly put the boys well and truly on the spot - especially when in truth we knew bugger all about the subject. She asked the boys questions about their experience and about their knowledge of the female anatomy - something we knew even less about! In a classic example of taking the kids on at their own game, shortly after drawing a basic diagram of the female body on the blackboard, she looked directly at a boy who seemed to be trying to make comparisons between the blackboard and reality, and said, 'Daniel, there's no point in looking at my crotch. You're not Superman with X Ray vision."

We had met our match!

Her classes developed into interesting and informative sessions covering a wide range of topics. By the time her short spell with the school was over, we had so much admiration for the way she handled the class, that we had a "whip-round" to buy her a bunch of flowers.

Incidentally, if you are reading this Miss Hayes - there are still a few things I'm not clear about!

It was during one, "Sex before marriage" discussion that a humourless young student teacher reported me to the headmaster for being "cheeky. In fact I had no intention of being cheeky, it was just my wording was particularly unfortunate. I wanted to make a point regarding the controversial nature of the concept. However, what I had in my head came out of my mouth as, "The trouble with sex before marriage, is that many wont take it lying down".

The whole class started laughing - except for misery-guts at the front - and it took me a while to work out why!

Luckily the headmaster dismissed it. - one of the few headmasters I ever encountered that really knew his pupils.

Ah, those were the days!