Public School Life: Boys, Parents, MastersWaugh, Alec
History
Public School Life: Boys, Parents, Masters
Waugh, Alec
Education, Secondary; Endowed public schools (Great Britain)
I cannot think that the rush of getting off in the morning and the
journey to school can be good for a boy of fifteen. It is a strain for a
full-grown man. That twenty minutes' jolt in tubes and lifts is
exhausting. No one arrives at the office perfectly fresh. By the time
one gets back at night one is really tired. The tube journey at the end
of a hard day completes one's weariness. And on top of that weariness
the day boarder has to do an hour and a half's preparation. It is not
the ideal setting for successful work.
The day boy is also leading two lives at the same time. He cannot shut
them away in watertight compartments. They overlap. It is, no doubt, for
the business man a great privilege and a great relief to be able to
return at the end of the day to a quiet evening in his wife's company.
But then he has not got to work at home, and work implies friction. The
worker wants an absence of outside influences. He wants the company of
quiet folk who make no particular demands on his energy and patience,
with whom his relations are superficial and for whom he does not
particularly care.
Many writers make a failure of marriage because they put their study too
near their nursery. The imaginative worker wants to be alone, not only
while he is working, but for an hour before he starts working and for an
hour after he has finished working. In many ways the army is the ideal
career for a writer. He can do his two hours' writing after tea, have
his bath and change, and go down to the ante-room, where he can read his
paper quietly and chat superficially with people who make no demands on
him. Wherever there is an intimate relationship there is friction. The
proper adjustment of his work to his personal life is the most delicate
task a man has to tackle. It is beyond the compass of a small boy. For
the very reason that a boy loves his parents there will be friction; a
strain will be placed, that is to say, upon his energy and patience. The
boarder has fewer worries and, in consequence, is happier than the day
boy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account