Page 25 - The Gonzaga Record 1990
P. 25
LITERATURE AND TEACHING
Mic/we! Be1 ·an
Probably no part of Peter Sexton's period as Headmaster gave him more
pleasure than accosting members of stall and indulging in a very human
personal contact. I was enjoying one of these moments or intimacy (while
my class. no doubt. threw bits or Milton at each other) when Peter
confessed to being a littl e anxious. 'I don't seem to have a very clear
picture of what you English teachers actually do,' he said. 'I sometimes
have a littl e difficulty in ex pl aining to parents. Ma ybe you would put it
down on paper for me sometime .' Some of Peter's requests one could
smilingly shrug off.
As Headmaster, Peter generall y got what he wanted by th e use of subtle
in sis tence over a prolonged period. His telephoned request. the day before
sc hool reopened. for some remarks on the teaching of literature caught
me with my defences down. I had thought him safely among th e children
in Africa.
The return to teachin g is hard enou gh; to write a rationale of th e job
within the first ten days is intol erabl e. That this article appears at all is
a compliment to Peter's tal ented midwifery (may it serve him well is
Africa~). He knows I wish him well in Harare: well might I hav e wished
he were there sooner!
Your teacher of literature (I recognise the danger of self-caricature here~)
may so metimes be perceived as a little of the odd ball : slightly stand-offish
in the staff-room (too much work, of course!); disagreeing with everybody
else's ve rdi ct on last night's documentary; ruining straightforward topics
of conve rsati on with obscure quotations. Since the days of F. R. Leavis,
he has been in cl in eel to communicate the impression that he beli eves hi s
subj ect to be the most important in the curriculum - a charge he will
deny publicly, but find him drinking with his association colleagues and
it 's another story. Yet confront him or her with the questi on 'What
precisely do you do? What are the grounds for your pretension ?' and the
response is often a condescending evasion. Not that some of hi s/her
colleagues cion 't think they know the answers themselves, or hav e des igns
on teaching the subject: the Maths teacher has been known to hurl defiant
quotations from Shelley; the French teacher eyes the subject jealously
as a higher calling; and the Religion faculty is bent on outright annexation.
Now let me defend the teacher. That phrase 'teaching literature' does
not immediately yield any obvious meaning - not in the sense th at one
23
Mic/we! Be1 ·an
Probably no part of Peter Sexton's period as Headmaster gave him more
pleasure than accosting members of stall and indulging in a very human
personal contact. I was enjoying one of these moments or intimacy (while
my class. no doubt. threw bits or Milton at each other) when Peter
confessed to being a littl e anxious. 'I don't seem to have a very clear
picture of what you English teachers actually do,' he said. 'I sometimes
have a littl e difficulty in ex pl aining to parents. Ma ybe you would put it
down on paper for me sometime .' Some of Peter's requests one could
smilingly shrug off.
As Headmaster, Peter generall y got what he wanted by th e use of subtle
in sis tence over a prolonged period. His telephoned request. the day before
sc hool reopened. for some remarks on the teaching of literature caught
me with my defences down. I had thought him safely among th e children
in Africa.
The return to teachin g is hard enou gh; to write a rationale of th e job
within the first ten days is intol erabl e. That this article appears at all is
a compliment to Peter's tal ented midwifery (may it serve him well is
Africa~). He knows I wish him well in Harare: well might I hav e wished
he were there sooner!
Your teacher of literature (I recognise the danger of self-caricature here~)
may so metimes be perceived as a little of the odd ball : slightly stand-offish
in the staff-room (too much work, of course!); disagreeing with everybody
else's ve rdi ct on last night's documentary; ruining straightforward topics
of conve rsati on with obscure quotations. Since the days of F. R. Leavis,
he has been in cl in eel to communicate the impression that he beli eves hi s
subj ect to be the most important in the curriculum - a charge he will
deny publicly, but find him drinking with his association colleagues and
it 's another story. Yet confront him or her with the questi on 'What
precisely do you do? What are the grounds for your pretension ?' and the
response is often a condescending evasion. Not that some of hi s/her
colleagues cion 't think they know the answers themselves, or hav e des igns
on teaching the subject: the Maths teacher has been known to hurl defiant
quotations from Shelley; the French teacher eyes the subject jealously
as a higher calling; and the Religion faculty is bent on outright annexation.
Now let me defend the teacher. That phrase 'teaching literature' does
not immediately yield any obvious meaning - not in the sense th at one
23
