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The Times 1968: An air of unreality
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Author:  Róisín [ Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:02 pm ]
Post subject:  The Times 1968: An air of unreality

This is from the same journalist that wrote 'Meanwhile, back at the old school'. Bits to do with EBD are bolded.

Quote:
The Times, Saturday March 16th, 1968
An air of unreality
by Jacky Gillott


Locked-up Daughters by Felicia Lamb & Helen Pickthorn (Hodder & Stoughton)

Initial reactions to this book must be wholly welcoming largely because there isa remarkable lack of writing on girls’ achievement in school, and also because such writing as there is remains unreadable.

The first chapters promise well granted the assumption that a book of this kind cannot stand without its historical prop. In prose recommended as “racy and readable” (by Dame Dorthy Brock, in an otherwise faintly guarded preface), Mesdames Buss, Beale and company rise from a thankfully dustless past. And then, thinks the reader only too anxious to be pleased, perhpas it is because so little enterprising happened in the field from 1920-50 that the authors draw upon the collected works of Angela Brazil, Elinor Brent-Dyer and Enid Blyton to give a picture of school life characterised chiefly by health, conformity and the downfall of sneaks. Whether in fact this has ever been a reliable picture for anyone but pre-pubescent girls of 12 who don’t mind wearing foul-smelling felt hats and seem not to feel the cold is hard to know. It has always appeared more ideal than real.

It is only when reading on into the second part (skimpy descriptions of nine current schools) that one suspects the authors of harbouring an atavistic wish for this energetically innocent mould. Disturbing sentences creep forth: “The authorities may worry as to why more girls do not stay on in independent schools to do A levels. But not for nothing, many shrewd mothers think, the saying that gentlement prefer blondes!” “A truth that women are usually wise to conceal is that civilisation is the work of women, not men.” “...and good manners are a very important part of civilised life.” Since when, I wonder, have dumb blondes with nice manners shaped our civilisation?

These sentiments are so actively anti-education, so pre-war (and I refer, of course, to the 1914-18 war) that reader loses confidence in writer and remains numb to the later claim that today’s housewife requires greater sophistication in dealing with manmade fibres and washing machines. Rather the reverse if anything, but no matter, such views have become irrelevant to any discussion of education.

The book concludes with a section on something unbeautifully called comprehensivisation already referred to as an ominous cloud which renders any just analysis specious right from the start. Quite what its specific relation to girls education might be is never made clear.

All this is bitterly disappointing. By describing itself as a look at girls’ schols and education, the book raises expectations it never begins to meet. There is no mention of the really worrying features peculiar to girls’ education: the great exodus at fifteen, the tiny percent of school-leavers continuing some form of further education (and that mostly a quick bit of shorthand and typing), the apparent lack of facilities, in science and maths, the notably good performance of girls at A Level followed by mediocre performance at University and the shockingly rapid turnover of teaching staff in girls’ schools. While it is pleasant not to limp through elaborate graphs and footnotes, a small, well-placed statistic would do a lot for conviction.

Not only are nice manners more conscientiously observed than this depressing pattern of affairs; there is also a startling absence of opinion from schoolgirls themselves. The sole question addressed to a (Roedean) schoolgirl appears to be: “Aren’t you ever naughty?”

The girl in question seems to have reacted with blank surprise. Me, too.

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