TEXTBOOKS & SYLLABI
For those who do not receive it privately a copy of the
latest Old Libertians' Newsletter is available in the
Library. It includes news of... a plan
to prepare 'a History of RLS'. Who's going to write that then? (Andy Lee)
I have just this minute spoken with Mr 'Magoo'
McGonigle, and he says he doesn't know... however, he
has just told me of a W H F Whitmarsh, who taught
here in the 1920s and wrote a commercially successful series of French text
books. I feel like I should have known that
before but I didn't! Did anyone
know? Or know more? (Adrian Thompson)
VWHF Whitmarsh co-wrote the Fox
& Whitmarsh series of French text books which was
the chosen medium for teaching French at school in the 50s. I think they were
published pre-war remembering the content & style. The Fox part of the
Authorship was well known at the
After I asked Mr Magoo if the 'RLS
History' was a reality we discussed what would go into the history if it were
to be written, and then he suggested the Whitmarsh
books. After he brought the question up, I realised I don't know which bits I
would put in if I wrote the history. And should it be in the form of a
narrative? Or a collection of unlinked anecdotes/stories?
Magoo proposes choosing a year - his was 1944 - and
writing about how the RLS was in that year, to compare and contrast it to the
current RLS. Obviously '44 was just
an example... (Adrian Thompson)
Not all text books were free at RLS. For some reason the
Physics department couldn't supply A Level text books to all pupils, so we had
to buy our own. I still have my copy and use it to look up obscure facts from
time to time.
It was written by Nelson and Parker. Judging by the figure in the front of the
book it cost £3.60 in 1972. I bet the equivalent costs much more today. I
wonder if it would cover the same subjects or have we not learnt much more in
the last 30 years?
The Geography department offered pupils the opportunity to buy a copy of
Philip's University Atlas. I presume it was at a discount on the published
price of £3.50. I still have my copy, although some of the countries have
changed their names since 1974 when I bought it.
I still have my copy of the school hymn book, and that was free. I seem to
remember the Gideons coming to the School and
presenting everyone with a New Testament. I think I still have my copy around
somewhere. (Ian Macauley)
Peter has also supplied the textbook label spanning pupils from 1942-1963 to which he referred in a message a couple of weeks back. It's interesting to note that around 1958 references to the sixth form switched from Roman to Arabic numerals. Official documentation took a couple of years to catch up ... the Year Book for 1959-1960 uses the terms VIB and VIA; by 1960-1961 they had been modernised to 6B and 6A. (Andy Lee)
Robert wrote: So what form of literature (if any) did the
school teach in the sex-drugs-&-rock'nroll 1960s?
Perhaps 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', 'On the Road', 'The Sound of Musak', 'In My Own Write'?? Or what?
I just wonder?
No such luck. I did English Lit A level 68-70 and the ones I remember were
'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', 'Wuthering Heights', 'The Tempest',
'Canterbury Tales' plus the poems of Coleridge. Amazing that
it sticks in the mind as I got an almost unheard of H grade (apparently 1 below
F for fail). (Roger Harlow)
For O level we had such exciting things as "The Autobiography of a Supertramp" and "Macbeth". On the plus side we also had "Lord of the Flies" and a book of modern English poetry by people like Charles Causley. I put this down to Vic Slade's ability to pick the best books from a fairly uninspiring set list - he certainly didn't think English was meant to be boring. (John Bailey)
I don't think eng. lit had changed much in the 60's. We
usually had a Shakespeare play each term (the usual suspects), a novel and an
anthology of verse. Each boy had a different novel to read, rather than a class
exercise. I recall Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone in
first year. At sometime I was bored by The Forsythe Saga, before it was
serialised on TV. I also couldn't get into T E Lawrence's book 'Seven Pillars
of Wisdom'.
I don't recall seeing any performance to aid with study of Shakespeare. (John
Hawkins)
Andy asked who wrote 'Moonfleet'. It was J. Meade Faulkner (publ.1898!), I have a Penguin copy. I always held that it comes close to 'Treasure Island' for eerieness and page-turning: The boy John Trenchard trapped in the Mohune vault under the church floor where he stumbled on the smugglers' brandy store, then hiding on and falling through into Blackbeard's coffin! His joining the smugglers & getting wounded, hiding up in a limestone cave in the cliffs for ages to heal, decoding the clue from the tomb and finding the Mohune jewel down a well etc., travelling to Amsterdam and getting framed there, saved from shipwreck in the terrible cove of Moonfleet etc. etc. In short, a rollickin' good yaaaarn, boys, eeeh? (Robert Priddy)
Hon. Member Hackshall has sent an item that will send a shudder of either fear or pride through approximately one-third (see p.s.) of all RLSOldBoys - the cover and the first page from 'Latin For Today - Book One' by Gray-Jenkins and McEvoy. Due to its enduring nature it is filed in ... Timeless Artefacts. Latin scholars will be pleased to know that it is still true that 'Britannia est insula' while 'Italia paeninsula Europae antiquae est. Romani in Italia habitabant.' (Andy Lee)