CHARNEY HALL In Hindsight
I cannot remember any discussion taking place - the answers to the ‘whys and wherefores’ it appeared, were preordained. What I perceived as my parents ‘copping out’ was, it seemed, to be for my own good. One minute I was attending a popular private day school located on busy Manchester Road, Burnley and the next I was disembarking from my parents’ car on the tarmac drive of Charney Hall Preparatory School for Boys, Grange-over-Sands, generously suited in grey with pristine white shirt, grey socks, black shoes and an undistinguished maroon tie.
The shock and anxiety that I must have experienced has obliterated any detailed memories of that poignant moment. Maxwell and Barbara Duncan and other masters must have welcomed us….and I suppose set the tone for what was to come. What I do remember was a feeling of abandonment or ‘homesickness’ which lasted at least 2 weeks and which was initially accompanied by urgent visits to the toilet in the middle of the night. This subdued Victorian space, complete with tungsten bulb, high level cistern, pull chain and handle, was fortunately for me, located directly across the first floor corridor, just opposite our large dormitory. We were not allowed out of our beds or dormitory after ‘lights out’ so this act of apparant defiance could have been misinterpreted and resulted in a beating by Mr Duncan who patrolled the corridors at irregular intervals.
Subsequently the homesickness was to reoccur at the beginning of each successive term but it reduced in intensity and duration as I grew older and more independent.
People say that some boys thrive and others hate the life at boarding school. I didn’t hate it but neither could I admit at the time that I really enjoyed it. My feelings were neatly packaged up somewhere deep inside and I determined to get on with life, accept whatever was thrown at me, without rebellion or complaint.
In a boarding school full of 60+ boys aged between 8 and 13yrs there had to be discipline. Whilst scientists have more recently championed the theory of chaos and the beneficial affect that it has on our planet and evolution, discipline (or managed equilibrium) at Charney Hall was achieved by two distinct components - Latent Fear and Perceived Reward - hot and cold - sweet and sour. Without one it was impossible to appreciate the other. Without the other, life would have been intolerable.
Fear was instilled into school life at various levels but was always present in a master’s control of the classroom, on the sports field and on the walks. The mildest form encouraged compliance and participation in all forms of school life - a veiled threat immediately picked out by the raw emotions of a new boy. Whilst the most extreme climaxed in a visit to Maxwell Duncan’s study, a severe dressing down and a caning. I do not believe that many pupils suffered the ultimate corporal punishment at CH, some came close but most had this reserved for a future life at public school.
The ‘Reward’ was like a carrot to a donkey, hung on a stick, tantalisingly just out of reach for the majority of time. It was confirmation that all was well and we were towing the line, making good progress (even if the end of term report implied a different state of affairs) : The weekly distribution of sweets - an Autumn term film in the Memorial Hall on Sunday afternoons - school colours for cricket or football - walks on Hampsfell, in Yewbarrow woods and around Grange town - a day out at Tarn Howes in celebration of a pupil’s scholarship to public school - a fleeting glimpse of a silver cup for excelling in some sport - all seemed to validate this. And later in school life, on summer Sundays, trips out in a master’s car to scale the heights of the Lake District peaks and to surf down the screes, the memories of which were to remain with us for the rest of our lives.
So the benefits appeared to outweigh the disadvantages of life at a boarding school. What however was not taken into account was the psychological damage that could affect the mental development of a child taken out of a caring family environment at such a young age. Fortunately nowadays both public and private educational establishments are more aware of this as there is a body of research to refer to. But that does not mean that there is a clearly defined path for all to tread. There are too many variables. What is very evident is that whatever course is chosen, this is undertaken with a sensitivity that was not appreciated nor deemed essential after WW2.
Then the selection process for teachers was neither sufficiently developed nor rigorous enough. Two world wars had dramatically reduced potential applicants and the human resources available were inevitably drawn from the military classes who had their own problems. PTSD had yet to be recognised. The school curriculum was not in tune with the requirements of a capricious, modern life free from conflict and the psychological wellbeing of the child was not safeguarded by the thorough monitoring of the emotional disorders that could be present in all educational establishments. This could have been pre-empted by the subtle interplay of teachers’ proficiency in the magical art of teaching - a skill in its own right, with their effective control of the classroom, the excellence and relevance of the content of subjects and the effective creation of a positive, nurturing, environment conducive to learning.
A line was drawn under our time at Charney Hall with the passing of the Common Entrance exam to the public school of our parents’ choice and the presentation of a signed copy of ‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare’ by Maxwell Duncan at the end of our final Summer Term. Past misdemeanours were forgiven and for the most part temporarily forgotten. An important, formative part of our education had come to an end, and at the passing of a carefree summer holiday, the Autumn Term would herald a fresh stage upon which to perform, with a new set of rules, many based upon historical, almost medieval precedent, setting the scene for an abrupt change in status and circumstance for us as time travelers in an alltogether different galaxy.
A third component to the subtle mix of underlying forces at work was quickly identified in public school life. I refer to the hormone Testosterone and its particular affect on house prefects who, in some public schools, were (1) allowed to cane pupils without direct instruction from the housemaster and (2) thereby also to abuse the fagging system - a most undesirable set of circumstances, that triggered anxiety on a different scale to that experienced in a preparatory school. I hope that this situation no longer exists in the private schools of today as it was prohibited in 1998.
In hindsight, with the benefit of life’s experience, the passage of time, a dimming memory and the acquisition of a pair of rose tinted glasses, Charney Hall truly was a magical moment in time. Some would beg to differ. But for others it was an experience which formed a fixed point of reference upon which thereafter everything else was founded. An experience, I suggest, that could not have been gained in any other way and if nothing else, we should be grateful to our parents for that.
K e i t h S m i t h
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