Excerpts from my address to parents, staff and children of Whitestone School on Speech night
Our guest speaker at Speech Night last year was Bryony Rheam, an old girl of this school and in her own right, an author. Her address on ‘Reading’ was so thought provoking that we have decided to reproduce the relevant sections in two parts in The Shrike’s Call. The first of these follows : – “John and I worked in Zambia for seven years at two international schools. They are run very differently to Zimbabwean schools and are marked by a general laxity in manners and demeanour and an attitude of ‘if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to do it.’ All this leads to, I’m afraid, is an atmosphere of boredom and apathy. And, if the pupils are difficult to motivate, the parents are worse! They can’t pick their children up after 3, they can’t help with play costumes and they feel that events like sports day should take place during school hours so they don’t have to give up a Saturday morning once a year. Personally,I’m tired of pandering to the particular whims of pupils and par