Chapter 9

He could not, of course, visit the village school too often. People would observe this. But there was a school nearby he had been meaning to call on, Langdale.

Langdale was an experimental school, it was small, private but with very many scholarship pupils; and, most interestingly, co-educational. The only mixed secondary level school in the whole of the county, with good reason. To most it was self-evident that girls’ should learn less academically strenuous lessons than boys. Actually what this translated into was that the complexities of a mechanical monster like a steam engine – of interest to boys – was far too complex for girls to understand; the complexities of minute and varied stitching in a sampler were something that a boy might not cope with and therefore was not regarded as intellectually rigorous.

He could call in to see the village school if there was time.

He was curious to see how mixed education might function; it wasn’t going to reflect on county-wide policy, there were too many differences, but it would, nevertheless be educational for him to see how these young people worked together.

“Mr Small? Glad to meet you my dear sir” The couple, both holding their hands out in greeting, were husband and wife “We are joint heads of our little school. Obviously Tilda mentors the girls and I the boys; but we are entirely equal in our responsibilities. I am Derek. I taught in Northambly Grammar school for eight years and then decided to put some new ideas in education into practise.

I, sorry, we believe in very child centred education. How can the children learn? By enjoying their learning. We have to make sure they are engaged with the subject. It is so important.

Learning by rote is not something we believe will deliver true value to the child.

Can I show you around?”

He was very enthusiastic. His wife was quieter, Jack already was thinking she was the second fiddle.

“Perhaps, I could suggest that you both show me a little of the layout, and then, if I may, I could walk around without disturbing your work.”

“As you wish. We are very open here, nothing to hide. You may find the young people, especially the young women, are more outgoing and responsive than you are used to.” I’m beginning to doubt that, thought Jack.

The next half hour was spent walking round with the two heads, Tilda Morrison said hardly a word. Then a boy ran over.

“Excuse me Mr Morrison, you are wanted urgently at the javelin field. Thomas has...” What could it be?

“What is it he has done, come, never mind our visitor. I told him we hide nothing”

“He has pushed his head through the railings and can not get out” All three adults breathed a sigh of relief, the words ‘javelin’ and ‘accident’ are rarely heard together with easy consequences. Derek Morrison ran off. He didn’t walk quickly, like most headmasters would, aware that to run demeaned him; no, this Head ran so hard that the boy had trouble keeping up.

“Derek, my husband, is very enthusiastic” Tilda spoke for the first time.

“Yes, I noticed. Tell me how you see this school”

“Men and women have to live and work together all their lives, unless they are monks or nuns. It seems to me remarkable that we should think that young children may learn together and then we should separate the genders at 11. Just the age when they might start to notice each other. I know that is part of the reason. Some educationalists suggest that boys might be distracted by the opposite sex; and others that girls are not as capable of dealing with the academic rigour. As to the latter, if you’ll pardon my language, poppycock! As to the first, if boys are brought up around girls, surely they would be less likely to be distracted by them?”

“It seems to me you are as enthusiastic as your husband, ma’am. But tell me, do the boys not still become enamoured of girls here? And if so, how do you protect your charges”

She seemed reticent to immediately answer; he opted not to press the point.

“And how do you impart the less pleasant, but equally essential pieces of education? For example how to you make your charges learn their French verbs?”

“We use various approaches, we may make up a rhyme for younger ones, or introduce parts of the whole in sentences and discussion, or even explain why ‘this table’ of information would be useful to learn for the future. Children can apply themselves if they see a reason, but we have spent so long telling them that we know better and they must do as they are told, rather than getting them to use their brains and come to their own conclusions.

Well ... You expressed a wish, an admirable wish, if I may be so bold, to look round on your own. You remember where the entrance and reception is? Good then come and find us there if there is anything you want to know.”

And with that she was gone. She didn’t say that the school had been warned there was a visitor. Earlier, her husband had said they had lots of visitors wishing to see their school, so the pupils were well used to adults they did not recognise. He wondered if that was entirely to be commended, what if someone with ill-intent was to enter the school? No-one would challenge them. This, at least, might be something in his report.

He walked across the playing fields, remarking on the extent of them for such a small school, it seemed they had been lucky in obtaining substantial support for this enterprise. At the edge of the cricket pitch was a low building with a glass roof. He opened the door and heard shouts and cries of delight, a good sign, surely, that the pupils here were enjoying their lessons. He opened the set of inner doors facing him and found he was looking into a swimming pool. ‘How excellent that they have the opportunity to learn to ... Oh!’ he thought. He had suddenly realised that the shouts and cries were from the pupils jumping into the water and swimming vigorously to the other side, climbing out and running round again. It was some form of game. But what he noticed was that the game was mixed, both sexes were disporting themselves without shame. The pupils, he estimated to be around thirteen, judging by their bodies. For they were all, completely and unashamedly naked. He watched as a girl climbed out, trotted round, shouting to the girls in the water, her small breasts made not a sign of movement as she ran, her naked front and back groin entirely on view, and devoid (of course) of hair. A boy ran faster and past her, giving her not a second thought. His balls had dropped and, again, had so far not the slightest sign of hair that Jack could see. His buttocks still had the rounded fullness of childhood rather than the dimples that signified adulthood. The two arrived at the side of the pool and both dived in, the girl with a smoothness that the boy totally failed to emulate (he created a large splash). Then they swam hard across the pool.

In total about twenty boys and girls were engaged in what amounted to a race. They had to complete fifteen crossings. A girl won, and another came second. They all climbed onto the side, laughing and jabbering together, tired but happy. A teacher walked round to where Jack Small was standing transfixed. “Can I help you? Are you the inspector? Ah, good, that is well. Yes this was an attempt to get them all exercising with a purpose.” Jack was pleased to see that the female teacher (for she was most definitely female) was not similarly attired as her pupils.

“I, umm, could not help noticing their lack of clothing”

“Yes”

“Could you expand upon ‘yes’?”

“They are indeed, as you see unclothed. Ah! You wonder why?” Jack nodded, had the world gone mad? Of course that was his question. “We encourage all our younger pupils to swim in this way until they reach a state of puberty when they feel they should cover up. It frees them, you see. They are able to concentrate on swimming rather than the restrictions of their clothing”

“What, ah, what age?”

“Well, as I say, it depends. We have some who persist into their late teens. These, we generally find, are the free-er thinkers in the group. We currently have three girls and two boys who are, shall we say, fully developed, who continue to find the freedom of naked swimming a liberation. At their age it is up to them when they exercise in the pool. I myself often join them. If you wish to swim whilst you are here, you would be welcome.

Most of the girls stop at fourteen, and the boys sometimes brazen it out to fifteen, but they start to compare their sizes and often, sadly become self-conscious. Such a pity. I find the naked adult male singularly attractive in so many ways from an artistic perspective.”

“Yes. Thank you. Well, I shall let you continue, please” He walked back out, bemused. This was certainly a most progressive school; more so than he had expected; perhaps more so than he approved.

His visit to the main classroom block was uneventful; except in the sense that two pupils were vigorously and excitedly arguing the pros and cons of Shylock. One felt that he was driven to his extreme attempt at revenge, driven by the prejudice of his co-residents of Venice and therefore they and not he were at fault; the other that no extreme could be so great as to justify such action and Shylock deserved his loss of money, daughter, religion and position. That this was officially a lesson in maths momentarily confused Mr Small, but the teacher explained that the ability to advance and defend a position was equally of value to the ability to calculate the area of an isosceles triangle, so the debate was allowed to continue.