All work and no play....

By now he was progressing up the school and academic work became increasingly pressing!  It’s a funny thing, brains; he had been in the bottom group all his school days but he wasn’t thick. But what was he and why did he find school work difficult, well not all but most!

His father had won a place to Grammar school and his brother passed exams with ease but when it came to him? Maybe he just didn’t care, but he did, maybe he didn’t try, but he did, maybe he didn’t see the point, just maybe…?

Ever since he had started school he had been popular and was happy with his friends, he enjoyed being happy and that was enough for him.  In the beginning it was enough for School and Teachers too but as his career in education developed it was almost as if it was too much and some Teachers didn’t like to see him happy and started to make comments on his reports that didn’t bother him but maybe got through to his parents!

At primary school he had been liked and popular; “it’s not a party unless he’s there...” they would say and he was happy. Then at Prep school he did well at sport, loved the atmosphere and was told, “you will either make the front or the back page of the newspapers!” and he was happy! When he thought back he realised it was at secondary school that the rot set in!

At first he was happy, although he was still in the bottom stream, he had made friends, IG was there, he was beginning to learn to play rugby and he thought things would continue as before.  But then he noticed a subtle change, nothing too much but a change all the same; if you were in the bottom stream you were thick or trouble or both and the Teachers treated you differently. 

It was the first time that he had been told, “You are different from your bother aren’t you?” which he thought was a stupid statement as of course he was different! But he came to realise the statement was actually,” Why can’t you be like your brother?”

Added to this was that he always saw the fun in situations and this did not go down well in the class and so he found himself in detention and so it would go; and he was not happy.

They say there are two ways to get noticed, be clever or trouble and as he was patently not clever what else could he do?!

He did try but so many subjects were either difficult or dry and boredom was the result; he had always found concentration difficult and these people certainly didn’t help.  He liked English and PE both of which he thought were useful but it seemed to the adults that only one of these was acceptable and any aptitude in PE just confirmed their view of his intellectual capabilities. So with this academic versus sport conundrum already to the fore he carried on.

In the Lower school were he began his secondary education he was his most unhappy; he found the work tedious, the discipline unnecessary and the PE and sport unfulfilling.

He had always relied on his sporting prowess to see him through and it still did in a way but the adults began to pick holes; at rugby, his favourite, he was often blamed when his team lost as he played at fly-half and was expected to win matches, and he did more often than not, so he was really upset when he was the only one, unlike his two best friends, who did get their colours at the end of term. Oh well, there was athletics and cricket in the summer to make up for his disappointment. The athletics went OK and he won races, the sprints as well as the long jump and throwing the cricket ball.

The cricket was a repeat of the rugby, he was lead bowler and once took 7 wickets for 6 runs and batted with some success, if not finesse, too; however he remembers against one school were the batting had collapsed, and for some reason he had been promoted to opening for the school and, apparently the collapse was his fault as the on the way to lunch the next day the Teacher asked, “What did you think you were doing?”

Well trying my best actually, I never professed to be an opening bat and you put me there so what did you think you were doing?

Needless to say he didn’t get his cricket colours either! So he embarked on his upper school career being thought thick, had almost been expelled and his sporting efforts had been trashed!
Surely things would improve…..