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Re: CH videos

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:59 am
by J.R.
Could you imagine this rap EVER being produced during CME Seaman's time ???? :oops:

Re: CH videos

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:26 pm
by Jim Rayner
Thanks for the links. I'd never seen any of the videos before and watching them now was a strange experience.

Seeing again the lunch parades, chapel services and the other CH ceremonies and set pieces, reminded me where my over-developed sense of the ridiculous came from, and why I shy away from ceremonial and dressing up. None of this stuff holds any interest for me. The things I value about my time at CH are all long since gone: friends of the time; a few exceptional teachers who taught me to think; and the ThA environment that owed so much to Mike Carrington. I can't imagine I shall ever go back.

Something Poulton said in the Cliff Michelmore video particularly struck me. I'd never come across him before, though I see he shared Newsome's trait of being a pompous ass - it's probably a precondition for being a headmaster. But he said something along the lines that what old blues all have in common is a love for Housey.

I'm afraid I don't feel that - and not just because of what's come out recently - I'm not sure I ever felt it. Yes, I'm grateful for the academic education and lessons about life I received, but I also think there was a cost. Fortunately I was never the victim of any of the sexual predators the school employed (though we now know there were at least two on the loose at the time, one of whom was evidently active in the dormitories where I slept for 3 years), and I'm not claiming to have been psychologically damaged by the boarding school experience. I suppose I'd be considered a success for the school, finishing up as a House Captain and going on to Oxbridge. But I do think that compulsory sport, bullying in my first year, and the regimented lifestyle have left me with coping strategies and attitudes to dealing with authority and conflict that have not served me well in later life.

So, rightly or wrongly, I don't feel any special love for Christ's Hospital. Looking back 44 years on it seems like most of it happened to someone else in another lifetime. The parts of school life I valued have mostly gone and what's left are the traditions that I just accepted then but now look simply ridiculous.

And as for the charge. Any responsibility I feel right now is towards those who were failed by the likes of Richard Poulton.

Some of my contemporaries no doubt feel very differently. One of my fellow Maths Grecians was Christopher Steane, who is the incoming Treasurer and Chairman. It would be interesting to hear his thoughts as he takes up responsibility for the future of the school.

Re: CH videos

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:34 pm
by scrub
Bit of a strange experience watching those videos. Jogged a few memories and cleared a few more up, plus found myself a bunch of times thinking "wait, I know that kid!". That's the most I've seen of CH since I left. Can't say it gave me any desire to see more, or stirred any long lost feelings of school spirit, but surprisingly helpful with clarifying my memories. Cheers for that.

Poulton reminds me of Jim Hacker, probably visually more than anything else, but some of the mannerisms too. Don't know why that didn't click at the time.

Re: CH videos

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:37 pm
by Andyjf
Watching the videos didn’t do anything much for me other than realising how damaging boarding was. That was only my personal experience. There will certainly be many more court cases to come and my feeling is that there needs to be accountability, especially when so much was swept under the carpet. CH was certainly not unique in that way but the SMT need to be held to account in the same way that senior leaders in the BBC etc. are being. That means Poulton, Cairncross and Sillett who should all hang their head in shame.

Re: CH videos

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:30 pm
by wagenman
Dobbie, McCall, Husband and Wignall all in a row @ 40 s in this video. Uncanny.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sezmz_Iaw2Y&app=desktop

Re: CH videos

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:27 am
by richardb
Took the time to dip into these. Astounded to see how little McLean had changed from my mental image of him in Highway.

I am the same as Jim. Never been all Housey. Haven't been back since 1979 and doubt I ever will now.

I have always acknowledged the education that I received but I think that my teenage years were emotionally empty.

Any lingering attachment has died with the antics of the filthy five and the subsequent revelation that others were at it, such as Jerry Martin. The school failed us all when it came to child protection, but luckily we are all bright enough to see it.

Re: CH videos

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:43 pm
by DazedandConfused
wagenman wrote: Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:30 pm Dobbie, McCall, Husband and Wignall all in a row @ 40 s in this video. Uncanny.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sezmz_Iaw2Y&app=desktop
Who is Wignall? I don’t recognise the name.

Re: CH videos

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:20 pm
by scrub
English teacher, left at the end of 92 for a bigger and better job I think.
Can't remember much about him except that he introduced me to the books of Terry Pratchett.

Re: CH videos

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 6:32 pm
by DazedandConfused
Thanks, he left a few terms after I joined which will be why I don’t remember him.

Re: CH videos

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:22 pm
by rockfreak
DazedandConfused wrote: Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:43 pm
wagenman wrote: Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:30 pm Dobbie, McCall, Husband and Wignall all in a row @ 40 s in this video. Uncanny.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sezmz_Iaw2Y&app=desktop
Who is Wignall? I don’t recognise the name.

This video is a real eye-opener for me. CH comes across as even more pompous and grandiose than when I was there in the 1950s.