teaching relevance in later life

[sejintenej]

To what extent (if any) was the area you followed at CH (sciences, languages, classics etc) benefit you in later life?

In my case I followed the sciences - physics, chemistry, but in later life such learning helped for a mere 2 or 3 minutes when I remembered how the Pilkington Float Glass process works. By contrast French lessons ** at CH put me off languages (still hate them) but four foreign languages were to become the mainstay of my home, sporting and financial life.

In retrospect how did CH teaching help you in later life?


** my French teacher was interviewed by an SOE language instructor brought up in France and declaimed as knowing nothing/.

[Katharine]

Having done double Maths & Physics at A level, then a degree in Maths, I taught Maths and Physics for years, so yes what I learnt at school did help in later life!

I still take on posts requiring numeracy and am Treasurer for two small charities.

[rockfreak]

I never got to teaching but realised early in life that words were my thing rather than numbers. I was told by Gad at about age 14 that I could write but STEM subjects were, I'm afraid, a mystery to me. I used to get derisory marks in these subjects. The trouble was that it seemed to me that you have more of a marketable skill with numbers than words. So I floundered around for many years after school trying to work out how to make a living with words, and made a belated entry into magazine journalism - in this case the music press. I was off and flying. Being paid for something that I loved. But as far as school goes I think I was just a late starter. What can you write about at age 14 or 15? Especially in the monastic seclusion of an English boarding school. But thanks to Gad and David Herbert who I remember as helping push me in the direction of how to use words. I do remember doing an essay for Herbert and using the term "the order of the day". It came back with a note in the margin: "Ugh! Dreadful cliche!"

[time please]

Nothing at all!
Well maybe that is not quite right, all the bullying, the punishments, predators etc etc made me realise that there is another way of doing things and treating people. Which is why presumably I have worked in social welfare all of my life.

[scrub]

In retrospect how did CH teaching help you in later life?

The A levels in Chemistry, Biology, and Maths I took were necessary to get into uni to do a BSc, which was a requirement for doing a PhD, which in turn is part of the core criteria for working as a research scientist, a position I currently get paid for doing.

So from that point of view, it started me on the road to where I am.

That said, most of the knowledge that wasn't forgotten 10 minutes after the exam was superseded by the time I finished 1st year, but that's normal for a lot of the sciences.

I live and work in France, and GCSE French did give me a little bit of a head start in terms of learning the language.

Outside that though, the things I learned at CH that stayed with me weren't from the teaching.

[pierre]

Like you I was in the doldrums on leaving ch. I did sciences for a levels but failed to get grades sufficient for uni.
Career advice at housey was frankly appalling : a grotty filing cabinet of leaflets tucked into an out of the corner of the new science block. I am relieved to see the the old library is now a rather swishy career centre.
I eventually ended up as a trainee in fellmongery processing sheepskins fresh from the abbatoir into wool and leather using some rather toxic chemicals. CH chemistry lab experience of titration enabled me to get a leg on the ladder early on in production control. Better than being knee deep in sh1t which was the lot of other trainees!
A total career change, then saw me in the department of trade in London using English language skills to draft and compile ministerial briefing material and then 3 years in private office of both labour and conservative ministers enabling me to gain experience of both ends of the spectrum. Yes minister was on the TV at the time and is surprising how right they got it!! Departmental policy at the time was to be moved on to different jobs at regular intervals but somehow I managed to stick with trade promotion work for the most part. This is how I landed the plum job of project manager of UK national pavilions at trade fairs in France over 100 per year, everything from Cannes film and music festivals, Paris heavy construction equipment, and the seasonal ready to wear fashion events. The food shows were my favourite! This entailed complex negotiations with french exhibition organisers to book space in prime locations using ch o level french. The french were never too easy dealing with Brits but mutual respect eventually won over.

[loringa]

In retrospect how did CH teaching help you in later life?

Christ's Hospital was excellent preparation for my chosen career though it wasn't one that Ratty James the careers master wanted me to go in to particularly. Despite making a horlicks of my maths A Level (Grade D ) my A Levels were good enough for what I required. Equally important, the excellent Pinky Palmer developed my love of both history, especially American history in his case, and English Literature; Louis Bardot and Mr Farrar (can't remember his first name) gave me enough French to get by quite passably, and Ken Grimshaw and the rest of the excellent team in the Manual School taught me essential practical skills. I learned to cook and to read a map in the Scouts (very useful as I have a rubbish sense of direction), Chief Bradley taught me to shoot and John Shippen et al taught me to love the British Isles, particularly the lumpy bits and the wet bits. On the other hand, I was put off the theatre by Duncan Noel-Paton's over-enthusiasm for it, if not for life then for a good twenty years, and I have always loathed team games which I largely credit to the continuous screaming of Dickie Dawe, otherwise a decent-enough bloke.

Overall, I got what I needed from Christ's Hospital; I was happy enough to leave and it was hardly the best days of my life, thank goodness, but it was a good grounding and a decent preparation for what came next. I am grateful to the foundation and pleased to give back in a small way when I can.

[Katharine]

I don’t remember anything in the way of careers advice at Hertford, whether that was because I was deemed to be a dead cert for university I don’t know. I don’t remember any discussion about it at all - not even the

grotty filing cabinet of leaflets tucked into an out of the corner of the new science block.

[seajayuu]

You are right Katharine - absolutely no carteers advice at Hertford. In addition our external exam results were sent to us by post with no follow up or support in any way. This is in stark contrast to the help that students receive now, both at CH and elsewhere.

[Otter]

Career advice at housey was frankly appalling

Takes me back to a careers session on my GE.

The careers advisor, whose name escapes me, asked one boy what he wanted to do as a career. When the boy said he didn't know yet (I think a perfectly normal and respectable answer at age 15?), the careers advisor went absolutely ballistic, shouting at him saying that was absolutely not good enough and he will be unemployable, he didn't have any ambition, lack of respect for the Foundation and your parents who sent you here, bla bla bla. Somehow the kid kept his calm and replied, "So Miss, did you want to be a careers advisor when you were younger?"

[scrub]

Career advice at housey was frankly appalling

Takes me back to a careers session on my GE ...

I remember having careers advice session(s) during deps, and the advisor was one of the chemistry teachers. Can't remember his name, but think he was married to one of the Biology teachers(?).

Anyway, as a young 'un I wanted to be a vet. Sorted out work experience on my own and wasn't put off by the reality of it. Chose A levels based on what I'd need, etc.

Go in for my meeting with him, and while I can't remember all his words exactly, it went more or less: "I see you want to be a vet. No. You're not smart enough to get the grades you need, it'd be a waste of time submitting your application, so I'm not going to. You should really look into a trade."
That was pretty much it for the first round of advice.
I sort of laughed it off and spent a fair bit of time trying to work out how to get around his "help".

Don't know if he was like that with everyone or just me, but he wasn't the first (or last) teacher to suggest that I should have left after my GCSEs.

[sejintenej]

I live and work in France, and GCSE French did give me a little bit of a head start in terms of learning the language.

Outside that though, the things I learned at CH that stayed with me weren't from the teaching.

Interesting. I lived in France after I retired. One summer, days after taking GCSE French (which she passed) my grand daughter and a friend came to stay for a week. The evenings they used to go into town and mix with the local kids. At the end of the week she claimed that she had learned more French in five days than in the years up to GCSE.
I certainly learned very little (and no useful) French at school but as with other languages I learned them on the streets, in the bars etc etc. and also at work
I do have to wonder about the teaching of Mandarin at CH; how often will pupils use it in real life? Surely teaching is to prepare youth for their futures?

[scrub]

At the end of the week she claimed that she had learned more French in five days than in the years up to GCSE.

That sounds about right. I moved to France towards the end of the first big pandemic lockdown, was in quarantine for a couple of weeks and for the next six months my only French language interactions with people were ordering takeaway coffee, buying bread, and giving directions to delivery drivers.
It took me about a month to surpass the French I'd learnt at CH, and to be honest, most of that came from watching the 6 nations on local TV.

I do have to wonder about the teaching of Mandarin at CH; how often will pupils use it in real life? Surely teaching is to prepare youth for their futures?

I assume people are still using the same reason they did when they suggested I keep learning German - "It'll be the language of business in the future". It won't be, because businesses tend to use whatever language(s) they and their biggest market are based in, but that's never stopped anyone from saying it.
Like anything else, kids who learn it will use it as often as they need to in whatever capacity they have to. As I'm seeing more often these days, anyone who works across borders and DOESN'T have a degree of familiarity with a language other than their mother tongue is at a serious disadvantage.

[sejintenej]

At the end of the week she claimed that she had learned more French in five days than in the years up to GCSE.

That sounds about right. I moved to France towards the end of the first big pandemic lockdown, was in quarantine for a couple of weeks and for the next six months my only French language interactions with people were ordering takeaway coffee, buying bread, and giving directions to delivery drivers.
It took me about a month to surpass the French I'd learnt at CH, and to be honest, most of that came from watching the 6 nations on local TV.

To me the real problem is the fear, the panic when confronted with the first foreign langauge. Get over that fear and the second is no problem. I had marvellous teachers being a cashier on the counter of a bank in Gibraltar; my messups and howlers went around the rock in minutes and I was quickly accepted. Rio - I was dumped in an office with an older secretary who spoke only Portuguese and I didn't know a word - she had excellent tuition methods and it was all smiles and laughter. Very quickly I was mixing with local people of my age in the bars, on the beach etc etc. .I learned Norwegian the same way . Anywhere like that I had a policy not to be a part of the English speaking community.

We bought a run down farmhouse in a tiny hamlet near Mirepoix in the foothills of the Pyrenees about 25 years ago when I retired and sold 5 years ago. Fortunately my job demanded near full-time languages - normally Portuguese (I spent a lot of time in the local legal department in Sao Paulo and seconded to work in customers' offices) and South American Spanish so I had already lost my fear of languages. Dealing with neighbours -, the Mairie and building regs, suppliers etc and I was soon away. (I carried a notebook and wrote down every new word to learn it!) Worse, some of the stuff was in Catala but Spanish was a help in deciphering that.

I do have to wonder about the teaching of Mandarin at CH; how often will pupils use it in real life? Surely teaching is to prepare youth for their futures?

I assume people are still using the same reason they did when they suggested I keep learning German - "It'll be the language of business in the future". It won't be, because businesses tend to use whatever language(s) they and their biggest market are based in, but that's never stopped anyone from saying it.[/quote]
Semi true. I was thinking very specifically about Mandarin which is one of the two languages the Armed Forces reckon take longer to learn and which one seldom (if ever) sees. To me more important is the choice of which languages one ACTUALLY sees used. In Cairns, Australia they use Japanese a bit because of the huge number of Japanese tourists. For Europe and trade I reckon Spanish and perhaps French. With Spanish you can get away with Italian and Romanian with some difficulty. German seems to be rather passee - it used to be acknowledged as the language of engineering. My wife has a relative working on Airbus in Germany. After a decade he has not learned any German because he doesn't need it - English is the town's lingua franca as it was when my wife used to visit Ford in Germany.. I have worked at length with three of those languages, spoke a Scandinavian language (which helped in the bank just once) and am learning two more - one because of friends and the other because we have at last discovered my wife's family in Italy.

Like anything else, kids who learn it will use it as often as they need to in whatever capacity they have to. As I'm seeing more often these days, anyone who works across borders and DOESN'T have a degree of familiarity with a language other than their mother tongue is at a serious disadvantage.

[Jabod2]

Many similarities to loringa's comment (what years, Andrew?). Ratty James really only considered Chemistry to be the worthwhile science, particularly organic, I think. I did an aptitude test which said my basic numerical ability was low and wasn't allowed to do double Maths like my brother, but got a A in that and 2 Bs in Chem and Phys, and ended up in an engineering career in IT having gone through a far too theoretical Chemical Physics degree (resat Chem exam at the end of the 1st year). Bogey Fryer and Rocker Rae seemed to have ignited my Maths ability, Ping allowed the electronic engineer to develop with his 'trustee' club.

Having arrived a year late I got thrown into a French class where only French was spoken (Louis Bardot I think) which killed languages. Keith Stratton encouraged manual metalwork skills, JDS with Scouts until the CCF took over.

I could do Physics, enjoyed Chemistry and seemed to excel at Maths eventually (logical thinking/problem solving is what developed in my career). I think Chemical Production Engineering was suggested in the one and only careers session I recall, which my parents (engineers) contributed to. That was around UCCA application time I recall, although it may have been at A level choice time... I might even manage to find the document, but that will require some archaeology.