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Elizabeth Henderson's Blog - Memories of an Unremarkable Woman

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Learning v Education
Many women were called up or joined the forces because their qualifications made them useful in all sorts of ways in the army and air force. My sister Susan went straight into the air force as a Met Officer because of her degree in physics. Because of this there was a shortage of teachers. This meant that some stayed on past retirement age, some were not of the right calibre and some were only part time and some came and went after a term or two.

The new Headmistress replaced Miss Smith who had been strict but fair and had been held in awe by her pupils. Miss Yardley was only now and again strict and was not seen to be fair in dealing with problems. She was liked by some but not others. I am afraid I fell into the latter category. I disliked her and I am sure the feeling was mutual.

I had turned from being shy into an extrovert and was determinedly unconventional and this did not make me appealing to Miss Yardley. She knew I belonged to some "peculiar" religious sect and would bait me in RI lessons. She would ask me for my point of view and when I gave it I was labelled disruptive. I was made to stop studying music for my matric and made to attend latin classes because it was needed in those days if you wanted to go to university. I retaliated by refusing to learn any latin, in one exam I scored 10 out of a hundred. I didn't want to go to uni but nothing less than an academic career was considered and I was given up as a lost cause.

Some of the old school staff had no idea of making learning enjoyable. The, to me, ancient gym mistress succeeded in making gym and games an absolute misery. I could never manage to climb ropes or do any more than basic jumps over the horse but I was good at balance. Hockey was a nightmare, heavy mudcaked boots and the occasional whack on the shins were not my idea of a good time.

Maths was a problem as I missed a lot of vital information owing to illness and never caught up. It would only have taken a few minutes after lessons to explain the mysteries. I never caught up on long division and remain innumerate to this day.

The geography teachers came and went with speed. This was unfortunate as each teacher always started with Southern England and never got any further. In consequence I became an authority on one particular part of England while remaining completely ignorant of the world outside. We had an art mistress for one term who taught us how to draw horses using circles. I thought this was brilliant after years of being given large sheets of paper and a piece of charcoal in order to do a still life of statues etc. I always ended up with a tiny picture in one corner completely irrelevant to the subject. Still, I can draw horses and was sorry when she left.

There was one ray of brightness in my sporting activities that I should have mentioned. Our tennis courts were just down the road from the main building and during our allotted half hour of tennis practice my friend Colette and I would wind up the net and then sit and read until it was time to wind down the net and return to school. We really enjoyed those sessions.
This entry was posted on January 28, 2011 at 3:48 pm.
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Introduction Explore the Family Tree Return to Library Index View the Resources Used