And I still believe this was a large part of the problem. Maybe I'm being unrealistic - I said before that instability is no respecter of marital or maternal status, and it's certainly no respecter of intellect either. But I think our housemistresses probably did feel like second class citizens - their accommodation was crap, and probably their pay too. If they'd felt more fulfilled themselves, they might have treated us more kindly. I don't really remember having a problem with any of the teaching staff - of course there were good and bad teachers, as well as kind and unkind teachers. But I don't remember any psychos. And in any case, you can tolerate a couple of 40 minute lessons a week from a nutter if you can at least escape from it the rest of the time.Katharine wrote:Barnes Mum, our housemistresses were NOT teachers. I am not really sure how much they had to do with the teaching staff. I think they probably were very definitely second class citizens in the heirarchy of CH Hertford. For six years I suffered with a housemistress known to many as The Hag - Frances was another who suffered with her. My last two terms I had a different woman, but had very little to do with her as I no longer slept in the boarding house and as a Monitress I worked for the Headmistress not the house, so really I just had the one. We never knew why she decided either in favour of someone or against them. Her choices seemed totally irrational. Although I was one she particularly disliked (it was mutual) I did not have it as bad as some others have reported here. There were frequent sadistic little digs such as the day I was about to sit my English Literature O level (my worst subject) she summoned me to her and told me that she had heard a house in the village where we lived had been struck by lightening the previous night causing a large fire, but she did not know whether it was ours or not.
The problem with the boarding houses was that they were our "families" (hahahahaha) and there really was no escape if you were unhappy in your house - except in extreme circumstances such as Lynn's, where she was moved. And it was even worse if you'd had a bad day in lessons, because you weren't going home to a sympathetic family. Sure, we all sympathised and consoled each other, but with 37 girls in a house it was quite hard to feel anyone was really listening and could help if things were bad. It could be very hard at times.