Page 18 - The Gonzaga Record 1990
P. 18
comfortable. As well as the half-dozen or so Jesuits, it once contained
three classrooms, the boys' toilets and cloakroom, and in my diary I note
that 'at the end of 1952 wash-basins (2) were first installed' . To get a
few inches of hot water for a bath one had first to spend hours stoking
a primitive stove with newspapers, sticks and any other fu el to hand.
My coll eagues probably think of me as a privileged and cossetted " Mr
Chips" who lectures on Greek and Latin to a small number of committed
and gifted students in a quiet little oasis of the Science block. But 'twas
not always so. I served a long apprenticeship. After all , everything here
began with three Prep. classes (8, 9 and I 0-year-olds) and for several
years there was no question of the Classics. I spent my time with the
very young teaching Engli sh, sums (hardly mathematics!) and calligraphy
(both Engli sh and Irish handwriting) . I recall that I spent much of my
time on correct spelling : if there were as much emphasis on it nowadays
we wouldn't be getting all those letters addressed to the ' Principle' of
the School! I also got my young charges to learn by heart reams of poetry:
such an approach now would probabl y provoke a ti cking-off from the
educati onal gurus, not to mention the I.S.P.C .C . I still think I was right.
How things have changed! The school roll in 1951 li sted 52 students:
now it has jumped to over 450. There is a theatre, a chapel, well-furnished
classrooms and many other amenities. Would that our present scholars
appreciated all they have goin g for them! One little feature that might
diffe renti ate li fe in the fifties from the modern age o f TV, discos and
all the rest is that in the earliest years, when it rained during the lunch
peri od, I had all the boys gathered in the little cloakroom where, seated
on a dais, I read to them for a half-hour or so from a careful selecti on
of stories. Even the adventures of Pooh Bear and Heffalump were li stened
to in respectful sil ence. Such a captive audience would be unimaginable
now.
People keep sayin g to me 'Boys have changed . They' re much more
unruly now.' My answer is always the same. No, human nature doesn't
change. They are the same now as they have always been - some lazy,
some irresponsibl e, but the vast majority seri ous-minded and , as is ever
the case, very different when met on an individual basis than when they
arc ru nning with the pack. There is, admittedly, a lack of the old sancti ons,
a background of pop culture, an extra measure of peer pressure, a very
material-minded world around them, as well as the acute tensions of
modern exam-requirements; but to counter-balance all that there is, 1
beli eve, a deeper sense of responsibility towards the underprivil eged and
a more serious attitude towards life.
Gonzaga boys weren't always all little paragons of virtue. An unruly
clement is I iablc to surface every year, and there's no school can avoid
it. At the risk o f bordering on the fri volous I might here remark that,
fo r exa mple, the problem of graffiti is less acute - but maybe that's
because our modern desks arc made o f sterner stuff. 1 think back, too,
to a short period in th e sixti es when the letting off of stink bombs became
16
three classrooms, the boys' toilets and cloakroom, and in my diary I note
that 'at the end of 1952 wash-basins (2) were first installed' . To get a
few inches of hot water for a bath one had first to spend hours stoking
a primitive stove with newspapers, sticks and any other fu el to hand.
My coll eagues probably think of me as a privileged and cossetted " Mr
Chips" who lectures on Greek and Latin to a small number of committed
and gifted students in a quiet little oasis of the Science block. But 'twas
not always so. I served a long apprenticeship. After all , everything here
began with three Prep. classes (8, 9 and I 0-year-olds) and for several
years there was no question of the Classics. I spent my time with the
very young teaching Engli sh, sums (hardly mathematics!) and calligraphy
(both Engli sh and Irish handwriting) . I recall that I spent much of my
time on correct spelling : if there were as much emphasis on it nowadays
we wouldn't be getting all those letters addressed to the ' Principle' of
the School! I also got my young charges to learn by heart reams of poetry:
such an approach now would probabl y provoke a ti cking-off from the
educati onal gurus, not to mention the I.S.P.C .C . I still think I was right.
How things have changed! The school roll in 1951 li sted 52 students:
now it has jumped to over 450. There is a theatre, a chapel, well-furnished
classrooms and many other amenities. Would that our present scholars
appreciated all they have goin g for them! One little feature that might
diffe renti ate li fe in the fifties from the modern age o f TV, discos and
all the rest is that in the earliest years, when it rained during the lunch
peri od, I had all the boys gathered in the little cloakroom where, seated
on a dais, I read to them for a half-hour or so from a careful selecti on
of stories. Even the adventures of Pooh Bear and Heffalump were li stened
to in respectful sil ence. Such a captive audience would be unimaginable
now.
People keep sayin g to me 'Boys have changed . They' re much more
unruly now.' My answer is always the same. No, human nature doesn't
change. They are the same now as they have always been - some lazy,
some irresponsibl e, but the vast majority seri ous-minded and , as is ever
the case, very different when met on an individual basis than when they
arc ru nning with the pack. There is, admittedly, a lack of the old sancti ons,
a background of pop culture, an extra measure of peer pressure, a very
material-minded world around them, as well as the acute tensions of
modern exam-requirements; but to counter-balance all that there is, 1
beli eve, a deeper sense of responsibility towards the underprivil eged and
a more serious attitude towards life.
Gonzaga boys weren't always all little paragons of virtue. An unruly
clement is I iablc to surface every year, and there's no school can avoid
it. At the risk o f bordering on the fri volous I might here remark that,
fo r exa mple, the problem of graffiti is less acute - but maybe that's
because our modern desks arc made o f sterner stuff. 1 think back, too,
to a short period in th e sixti es when the letting off of stink bombs became
16
