This was never one of my best subjects at school,
probably due to the fact in 1958 – 1963 when I left school at 15 there were
only two periods on this subject per week. This might have been due to the
stream and class I was in. Even in those early days of life at that time
children were graded A, B, C, D.
A= high
performers and university fodder.
B= possibly wrong in their initial judgement
of the students ability, so in with a chance to achieve the same as an A grade
student.
C = non achiever, has the ability to be a good part of the UKs basic
labour force.
D = the no hopers, slow to learn and hard to teach. Not really clever enough to sweep the floor where Einstein was working out his theory of relativity.
They were given to low grade teachers that were new to teaching and just out of
training collage.
How did these children get graded in the first place
you might be asking? Well in the early 60s there was in the primary schools of England
a test that every 11 year old student sat. It was called the 11+ exam, and from
these twenty questions that a student got right or wrong sealed their fate.
I was graded C. I had reasonable teachers but the
main ones that gave you the nitty-gritty education, I E: - maths English. They had
little or no time for the student that could not travel through the lesson at
the same speed as them or the A+B students that they were used to teaching. I found
maths a nightmare with long division something of a mystery that even now at 65
years old, I have not mastered. [Thank god for the calculator.]
The young Ian at 12 years old
There was a lot of time taken at subtraction, times
and addition. They were useful for counting your wages I suppose, but what all
that algebra was about I have no idea. I sat through a half lesson one morning
of Mr. Lawson telling me that A = C minor and stuff like that. I closed my text
book and sat with my mouth open mesmerised by him doing a series of mathematical
equations on the black board. After an hour of learning damn all, the teacher
looked straight at me and asked, “What did you understand about all I said on
coming in the class room this morning, Johnstone?”
I realised straight away that this was a trick
question. The whole class looked at me as if they had never seen me in the
class before. I often wondered why they did that, because it always made me a
little more nervous. It also made me look to my left to see if there was
another student there instead of the brick wall. I think they were expecting me
to say something so that he would not ask them the same question. Well on this
occasion I was going to disappoint them, “The part when you said, ‘good morning
class,’ before sitting in your chair, Sir.” Well he did ask a question that had
only one truthful answer, and I had told him.
This three inch piece of chalk came from out of his
flicking fingers to strike me in the forehead. He could do that nine out of ten
times leading me to believe that he must practice at home. As I sat there
stunned he shouted, “You stupid boy, I have wasted my time on you. Get out of
my class and come back when you have learned something of what I have talked
about.” It’s at this point a student wonders whether he should be in the D grades.
I also think that by those words he was also a
little stupid, because if he could not teach me the correct way in class, he
had not got a hope in hell of me learning outside in the corridor. I stood there
the rest of the lesson without a reprieve, and the next time I would go to
maths lessons would be three months later when he left the school. Not learning
some of the maths correctly has not impaired my journey through life, because I
was willing to learn even if it was at my speed and not at the speed of the
teacher.
Ian 8 years later
I asked my brother and father that night to show me
what it was all about. My brother was 15 months older and in the B grade, my
father was an arrogant Scots Bastard that had no time for me. The way he and my
father talked a person might think that my brother was going to Oxford in the
spring. They both laughed as my father answered with the twisted sneer he always had when talking to me. “You should learn that at school, that’s what maths teachers
are there for.”
Well that answer blew away any thoughts I had on
being an chartered accountant as my chosen career. It seemed as though as I was good with
a hammer and chisel and good with my hands I would have to fall back on my
second career choice. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, a brain surgeon? Lmao.
Be well Ian.
