It's been a long time since I saw Dead Poet's Society, but I always remember how inspiring it was. The most famous scene of course is where all of the pupils stand on their chairs to pay tribute to their teacher, played by the late great Robin Williams. However, it is not that scene that left its lasting mark on me - it is the one where he encourages his pupils to tear up their grammar books. The point is that language is alive and should not just be merely limited to a set of rules, as defined by a rather stiff and stuffy book.
Concerning the former, this is my story of when I stood on a chair in class and you will see that it was a totally different experience.
This story goes back to my high school days. The school was split into the lower school and the higher school with the lower school being for 11 - 14 year olds. Being in the the lower school we got merits, which are a bit like points, for good work and they were part of a universal system to motivate an encourage the pupils to work harder and better. Furthermore any pupil who achieved 10 or more in a week was given the honour of wearing a merit badge for the next week. At the end of each academic year, the form (administrative group of children with an assigned form tutor) that gained the most collective merits and the boy and girl in each year group who got the most individual merits with the year would be awarded with a prize - usually a book token for WHSmith a now defunct chain store known for selling books, magazines, Videos / DVDs (latterly) and Computer Games as well as Stationery.
I pretty much won a badge every single week, but just once in the second year, when I was about 13 years old, I managed to get a demerit (the opposite to a merit - so for bad behaviour) and it brought out the worst of Mrs Townsend - my form tutor's - draconian nature.
I don't actually remember what I did to deserve the demerit, but it might have been when I accidentally flicked an elastic band that I had been winding around my fingers. I watched in horror as it flew out of my hands and slapped Mrs Reddington straight on her bum just as she was bending down to take something out of her handbag. It was such a good shot that there was no way I could claim it was an accident and I wouldn't have been believed anyway. I am still pretty sure that if I had aimed deliberately I would have missed. It is just one of those things in life that happens. I have no reason to lie some 40 years later, but I assure you that it was a total accident. I am not 100% sure this was the occasion as I also got a detention just once when I was in high school and that too might have been on this occasion.
It was during after lunch registration and Mrs Townsend had just found out about it. I went into the classroom totally unaware of what was to come. She duly checked our attendance and then from nowhere she called out my name in that stern voice of hers and told me to stand on my chair. She then directed the class to look at me before launching into a tirade about how it would be all my fault if our form lost the merit competition by just one merit this year. She laid it on really thick and pushed that point that I should be ashamed of myself for letting down and embarrassing the class. All of her effort was designed to humiliate me, but it backfired spectacularly on her.
The good kids were pretty much indifferent to what happened, but concerning the more fractious ones my credibility went up tenfold. Within the culture of the classroom back in those days (and maybe still today), it was always cooler to be in trouble or to be seen as rebellious and doing something wrong. Aside from the occasional fight (very rare now compared to my primary school times), I was generally a well behaved kid nowadays and so when I was suddenly seen as not so squeaky clean, those cool kids saw me in a very different way. It certainly made life easier for me as I was able to relate to all of the kids across the divide, whatever their background.
This was the mid-eighties and as they say things were different then. I certainly don't think a teacher would get away with taking such an approach nowadays. In fairness to Mrs Townsend this incident was a blip, although my brother didn't like her - he always called her the Witch. However, she was a decent teacher - probably the best in the school - and later on in my school days as I matured and became House Captain (yes we really do that in the UK, but no Gryfindor, etc!) she and I got on really well with her being my house's supervising teacher.
Of course, the irony was that I got more merits than anybody else in the school and in the two years when I was eligible to get merits, I topped the overall individual merit tables for the year and received a WHSmith book voucher as my reward.
Funny how things work out isn't it?
As always stay safe and well my friends.
NB The image is AI generated, but it captures the essence of what happened.
