How reading made us modern

[Jo]

Did anyone else watch this on BBC Four this evening? I thought it sounded interesting (and indeed it was) but what I hadn't expected, for the second time in the same week, was a big chunk of the programme (10 minutes or so) filmed at CH! It started, predictably, with the Band, but also showed a number of shots of pupils reading in studies, libraries, outdoors, etc.

CH was featured as an example of how charity schools started to make education, and therefore reading, achievable for the lower classes. There was an interview with an academic who, as far as I know, had no connection with CH, but she was filmed in the ??cloisters?? - the covered path alongside the chapel - talking about how reading and writing were taught as separate skills, at different stages, so that not everyone who could read could also write.

Very interesting programme, aside from the CH connection - highly recommended if it's repeated.

[Momto2]

I saw it Jo and also thought it was very interesting.

Lots of coverage of CH - getting to be quite a habit this week!

[englishangel]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Us_Modern/

The iplayer link.

[jhopgood]

I saw it Jo and also thought it was very interesting.

Lots of coverage of CH - getting to be quite a habit this week!

I have no idea whether this is related, but when I chatted to the former Clerk some time ago, he said that one thing he wanted to do was to publicise CH and it's work. He felt that CH was very misunderstood and that we required positive publicity.

[Ajarn Philip]

I have no idea whether this is related, but when I chatted to the former Clerk some time ago, he said that one thing he wanted to do was to publicise CH and it's work. He felt that CH was very misunderstood and that we required positive publicity.

I imagine he was referring to the common misconception that CH is a posh public school for rich kids. Let's hope that common misconception doesn't gradually become a reality.

[Jo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Us_Modern/

The iplayer link.

Fascinating - the CH bit starts at 38.33 and is actually only 4 minutes, not 10 as I had estimated! Also the academic was interviewed in the colonnade on the opposite side from the chapel. Shows how observant I am

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Nice that Jo could recognise the Eastern cloister, I gather, from her dates, that she was at Hertford, but nevertheless recognised that part of CH which is the POSH end ! !
Watch out for "Incoming" from Thornton --- Westward !

[AKAP]

But they did build us the Head master's house, chapel and the tuck shop at the non-posh end.

[J.R.]

I imagine he was referring to the common misconception that CH is a posh public school for rich kids. Let's hope that common misconception doesn't gradually become a reality.

Having read with interest, certain threads on this site from parents of current pupils, it would seem to me that this may well now be the case !!

[Laura12]

It's repeated again on BBC4 on Sunday at 2.05 in the morning ! (So in fact that would be Monday morning)

[nastymum]

This is a copy of a post on a different forum which is mainly for parents with children doing the eleven plus . It isn't the kind of publicity we need!




Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:37 pm Post subject:

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Three children who were at prep school with my DD went to CH, and they were all lovely, hardworking and delightful. One of them was felt to have a boarding need because he was much younger than his siblings and his father had died when he was very young, but I'm not sure why the other two went there except that they had parents on quite a low income who had struggled greatly to pay for them to have a good primary education, so I guess they would have benefitted at secondary level from CH's fee structure. However the general perception I find is that when you mention that someone is at CH people wonder what is wrong with them, as though it was some kind of reform school! I'm not sure whether I would want that label for a child if I wanted a boarding education but had alternatives open to me.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Sorry "Nastymum" ! but I giggled, when I saw the reference to a "Reform School" in your Post.
I expect this will start an entirely new Thread !
I suppose that, taking the wider view, CH can be looked on as a reforming school, in many ways
In my own case (not with a capital C !) I am sure I was a better person when I left, than when I arrived, and not only the effect of turning a little Cockney Thug into what might be regarded as a responsible Citizen (This is similar to the old Sandhurst tradition of turning "Blokes" into "Chaps" --- but I jest ! )
Whatever our origins, I believe that CH, either at Horsham, or Hertford did us good.--- I am aware that there are certain Authors, who disagree--- no names---- but in my case I am forever grateful !

[Fjgrogan]

My own daughter Maria had the same experience - her friends from primary school seemed to think that she had been sent away as a punishment. (No doubt she will comment further when she reads this!)

I remember when I came home for the first holidays being teased by local friends because I sounded 'as though I had a £5 note in my mouth'! That was in Fulham - obviously CH had done something to my accent that I was not aware of - I started out as not exactly Cockney, but decidedly West/South London (and still am). In later life I had a theory that there must be a certain age at which accents become fixed. At CH we all gradually levelled out; later at training college we arrived with individual accents and kept them - ie the Welsh remained identifiably Welsh etc - so the age must be somewhere between 11 and 18. I myself seem to be a 'sponge' linguistically - on my first weekend visit home from college my father said to me 'your room-mate is from Manchester' - he wasn't far wrong; she was from Oswaldtwistle, but he had recognised his own father's Lancashire accent without having met my room-mate. Once I realised that I had been doing that unconsciously I started to do it deliberately. Even later I found myself deliberately adopting what I called my 'public-school parent' accent whilst visiting my girls at Horsham - does that make me a snob? I hope not!

There were certainly some things about life at Hertford which I hated, and which I think have done me lifelong damage psychologically. but overall I am grateful that I got an extremely good academic education; the opportunities were there to benefit in other ways, but I was just not musical, artistic or athletic. Most of my problems were caused by a stormy relationship with a particular housemistress, so I had no qualms about sending my daughters to CH and I don't think they regret it either. (Please confirm, Maria!?) In retrospect I feel that what I experienced at Hertford was clinical depression and if it had been recognised as such at the time my subsequent life would have been very different.That Woman just wrecked my self-esteem!

But I am straying off the topic of this particular forum .............

[englishangel]

Interesting about the accent thing. At home in East Sussex I (obviously) didn't realise I had an accent and didn't realise at CH that it was subtly altered. There was one senior who was always picking me up on saying loike instead of like and such but that was the extenst of it. Then at 17 a French friend commented on my father's strong accent and I realised how much mine had changed. Living in the US 89-94 I started talking very posh, perhaps in revolt, and when shortly after I came back and bumped into Julia Sibary she commented on the plum in my mouth. Now I tend to talk as the person talking to me talks. The woman I work with was brought up in Watford, and many people thinks she is me on the phone (and vice versa), but then people say how I sound like my sister (who still has her Sussex accent) and my mother who was born in North Kent, lived in Orkney aged 7-18 and Sussex for the rest of her life. Go figure.

[nastymum]

Going back to perceptions of the school, apparently the pupils hate going inthe school mini bus bcause of the slogan on the side. I think it says 'Christ's Hospital School-giving education with care' . The pupils widely agree that is makes it sound as is the are 'in care' and the school is pleased to advertise the fact!