"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
At the second secondary school (Dad changed jobs) the head didn't teach -
the only time we saw him was when he droned on in assembly about "you
must have a Good Revision Programme" and "the Good Name of the School"
(delivered while standing ramrod straight, head back, looking down his
nose - all of which was imitated mercilessly!)

Yeah, outs was the same "accept the challenge" with the same derision
from the kids behind his back. He'd been a sergeant in the war.

My headmaster spoke in a bored-with-life upper-class drawl. He was obsessed
with pushing as many boys to go to Oxbridge, and spoke disdainfully of
"other universities". I remember he called the whole of the Lower Sixth to a
meeting and said "I am now going to read out a list of names" - which he
did - and then continued "Those of you whose names I have not read out are
not considered Oxbridge Material and should leave this meeting now" which
was a very tactless way of putting it and must have been offensive to those
who were "only" considered suitable for red-brick universities.

I was in a quandary. My name was read out, so I was deemed to be worthy of
trying - but I didn't want to go, because I didn't like the college system,
the elitism and the whole Oxbridge way of life. But when I mentioned this
tentatively to the careers master, he said "For god's sake don't say that to
the head". So I applied to an Oxford college - at my interview with the head
beforehand he blathered about "I know the Physics tutor at X college - had
lunch with him only last week - so you should try for a conditional offer".
Along I went, only to be told that the college didn't normally make
conditional offers so why was I applying here, and was baffled when I told
him that my headmaster had specifically recommended that college. I was not
at all happy that my time had been wasted, but on the other hand I was glad
that I wasn't put into the invidious position of getting an offer and the
required A level grades but deciding to go for a red-brick university
instead. I also had very bad advice about choice of subject: I was
interested in computing and electronics, but the head strongly advised me to
go for whatever A level subject I was best at, rather than an off-shoot
subject like Engineering that was peripheral to an A level subject.

I was naive and thought he knew best. Now I'm sure he was talking out of his
anal sphincter ;-)

He's still alive and I've seen photos him at recent Old Boys events. Now in
his late 80s or early 90s, he doesn't look half as imposing as he did when
he was the big boss.