As I look back now, I find that some aspects of school life from then horrify me because I know they would no longer be permitted. I find it shocking that each year’s intake of pupils was divided according to academic ability. The classes were labelled accordingly: Form IA for the brightest students, continuing through IB, IC, ID, IE, IF, IG, right down to IH, the least able classes. Subsequent years were labelled likewise, IIA, IIB, and so on. Parents understood immediately where their offspring were placed, and what that ranking meant. So, too, did the students.
Luckily for me, I was considered bright enough to be assigned to an A class, though I felt the pressure to do well there. Both my brothers John and Peter had long since skipped a year at school. I hadn’t been allowed to do likewise, probably because, in my first years in Africa, I had been more useful as an extra helper in the classroom. Now, as a teenager, I felt that both my brothers were brilliant, and that I wasn’t. I was terrified of failure. I knew that I had to work hard to achieve similar academic success.
Ranking the classes is not the only practice that shocks me now. It appalls me, too, that all test results were read out loud by the teacher to the entire class, starting at the bottom and ending at the top of the class, with every result being given to all. It also horrifies me that our public examination results were posted in the corridor outside the school office, such that anyone could read the names of the students plus the grades each received. The privacy of the student was not considered at all. Everyone in every class knew where she was placed within that class, who was the best and who wasn’t. Even our school reports gave our ranking, not only for each subject taken, but also overall within the class.
The final abomination was, however, the right of the staff to punish students physically. Teachers had the right to use a cane, a long piece of flexible wood with which to strike the buttocks of the male students in their schools. For the girls, staff were more likely to use a ruler to strike the hands or fingers of miscreants. Because I was in an A class of well-behaved, intelligent pupils, I never saw such punishment being administered, but I had seen it occur in my junior school, and can but assume that the practice continued, thereafter.
I liked my teachers, all of whom were female and who taught well. Unlike staff of today, they weren’t required to carry out supervisory duties. All such tasks, as well as the running of school societies, clubs, and social events, were organized by the Head Girl, and, in the case of my school, by the 36 prefects and sub-prefects who worked with her. Regular checks were made by the prefects and sub-prefects on the school uniforms which had to be worn correctly. Students’ dresses or gymslips (the latter worn in winter) had to be no more than four inches above the knee. I cannot imagine what would happen today in a high school in Ottawa if a female student were told by a fellow student a year or two older to kneel on the ground before her, and to allow the older girl to use her ruler to measure the distance between the hem of the younger student’s outfit and the floor. There would probably be an outcry, maybe a student rebellion or even a strike! We, however, knew nothing else. Just obey, or else be punished. Jewellery, nail varnish, hair adornments were not permitted. Hair long enough to touch a collar had to be tied back. Non-compliance led to penalties, such as detentions, also supervised by the prefects and sub-prefects. I was a model student, so didn’t infringe any rules.
