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Elizabeth Henderson's Blog - Memories of an Unremarkable Woman

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More Learning and Less Education
Mademoiselle Achard was a homely comfortable woman who was loved by all and was a great teacher. I found an unexpected talent for French and enjoyed her lessons. Being good at something can be a hazard as I found out.

We embarked on acting in a play called (as I remember) Les Voyages de Monsieur Perichon and I was given the lead role for the first half. My friend Colette took the second half. We spent hours learning our part, it was difficult enough had it been in English but in French it was almost impossible. But we tried and gave quite a creditable performance to the rest of the school. A year later we were taken on an outing to see the same play put on at the Institute Francais and to our amazement we discovered it was a comedy. Some of the lines that we had laboured over had actually been funny if only we had known.

As a tribute to our French Allies we celebrated a French Week. All classes had a french theme and although french food was beyond our reach we did learn something of an alien menu. To crown the week a young tenor had been invited to give a recital of french music. His accompanist was Mary Morris, a star of some of the wartime films. At the end of the concert we stood to sing the Marseillaise, all three verses. Unfortunately the soloist only knew the first so he had to stand in front of a hall full of girls in full flow while trying desperately to mouth what he thought might have been the right words. Poor man.

On another occasion we were visited by Theatre Moliere who were attracted by our very impressive theatrical equipment in a purpose built assembly hall/theatre. The main school building was an impressive Victorian mansion but a modern block had been added on. We were all given tasks to prepare for the performance and I, as a promising french scholar, was given the job of directing the men who were bringing all the props and costumes to the right places. Unfortunately my laboured school girl french, correct as it was, could not cope with men who were all speaking the language of working class Parisiens and I couldn't understand a word nor they me. So much for being good at french.

Miss Howitt who had always seemed to be there right from the time I first started right through the time the school was evacuated, was now my English mistress. From the word go we established a rapport based on a mutual love of words and books. She must have recognised in me something of her own youth and was unstinting in her development of my talents. She was an inspiration to me and was a great encouragement. She was also unwittingly my triumph over my elocution teacher; yes we had elocution lessons in those days. The elocution teacher had been taught Margaret Lockwood who became a film star. As usual she and I were at loggerheads. I failed an exam because if asked how I pronounced a word, being a literal girl, I told her when I should have given the correct version.

However, our House was entered in a competition to perform the best play and we were given the choice of four plays. As I was to be the producer I chose the story of Narcissus. Afterwards Miss Howitt told me she had elected that one because she knew I would like it. Anyway our elocution teacher was called on to be the judge without knowing who had produced which play. She praised Narcissus as being outstanding and was impressed by the way the chorus had been turned into a perfect Greek one . I enjoyed my moment of small triumph and discovered a new talent for all things theatrical.

The other subject that I really enjoyed was taught by Miss Marr who arrived on the scene after the school restarted and was a great inspiration to me and founded in me a lifelong interest in all things historical. I don't know whether she had the same effect on the rest of the class but I shall always be grateful to her.

The science teacher who came for a few terms was at Reading University with my sister Susan who she described as "looking as if she stood at one end of the room and threw her clothes at herself from the other end". The only sex education we had was to dissect a frog and have its reproductive system explained. Not much use in personal relationships. But I liked chemistry, mainly because I enjoyed the experiments, none of which I can remember.

I spent most of my spare time in the very good library. I even invented my own system of card indexing. All books being logged on cards in subject and by author so that lending the books was made simple.

That was how my school days were spent until I left, learning a lot about the things I was interested in and remaining completely ignorant of everything else. I also learnt much about myself, discovering new talents. I found out that I was good at organisation and had a tidy mind combined with intelligence and an ability to communicate. But it could only be considered a patchy education and I had no idea of what I wanted to do in life and was not fitted to an academic career. This all made me popular with my fellow pupils but as far as the school was concerned I must have been a perfect nuisance. And my spelling never seemed to improve, probably because I thought it irrelevant.
This entry was posted on January 30, 2011 at 4:46 pm.
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