As I sat in bed this morning, looking around at the familiar furniture and layout of the room, I was reminded that this was the very same bedroom from which I emerged each weekday to trudge along to school back in the 1970s. The school no longer exists (the original building anyway), so my room (and indeed house) are the last remaining links to a long-vanished period of my youth.
And then it dawned on me that it wasn't quite so. A few weeks before my family moved from this house in 1983 (returning four years later), I had started going to night school classes in my old secondary school. You see, I'd left the hallowed halls of Academia without sitting any Highers, so decided to pursue Higher Art, English, and History and increase my meagre qualifications.
I soon dropped out of art as I found it too boring, and then had to choose between History and English as they swapped English teachers on the night I attended that particular subject a few weeks into the course. To keep the teacher I'd started with (who knew his stuff), I had to give up History, as the two subjects were on the same night and I couldn't attend both at the same time.
So, ten years after leaving school, I was back at the very same one, trotting along every week from our new house, though I'd begun the course while yet living in my old one. I eventually acquired my Higher English qualification to add to my two O' levels (Art and English, the only two I ever sat), and had enjoyed the experience of reliving my schooldays in the process.
But, to get to the point (finally), I now realize that I regret having left school at 16, and wish I'd stayed on for yet another year or two. In that way, I would have remained a 'schoolboy', and extended the period of my boyhood for just a little while longer. After all, you can't really consider yourself an 'adult' while still going to school, can you? Unless you're a teacher of course.
Some of my classmates stayed on after I left, and I find myself envious if I ever hear any of them reminiscing about their schooldays after I'd departed. I was out in the working world, pretending to be an adult, while they continued their existence as 'schoolkids', with all the attendant holidays and lack of financial responsibility that such a life entailed. Would I really do things differently though, if I had my time over again?
Maybe, maybe not, but it's strangely fascinating to ponder how things might have been had I stayed on and continued life as a schoolboy. Would the duration of my youth have seemed longer in retrospect, or would it have made no difference in the long run? Feel entirely free to indulge my fanciful thoughts by adding your two cents worth in the comments section.
Or see me after school!
My impression is that judging by how fondly you look back on your school days you would still look back in the same way but you'd have just that bit more to look back on. The only part of my school years that I look back on with any degree of nostalgia are my college years, where I was among a group of people who were all artists like me. And maybe my early years at primary school. My high school years were to be endured rather than enjoyed and I am glad I left my home town after graduation as I'd probably have socked some of the people who gave me a hard time at high school were I to see them later on when I was older and bolder! No my enjoyment of those times was more for the periods out of school hours where my taste in books, comics, music and movies gave me strength to put up with the other part of my life.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt my memories of yesteryear are somewhat 'romanticised', PC, simply because they seem better when seen through the rose-coloured spectacles of nostalgia. I didn't much like secondary school (or high school as you call it - and now we do too apparently), and couldn't wait to leave, but somehow, lazy, hazy days in school, watching the chalk dust float languidly in the rays of the sun streaming through the classroom window - well, it just makes me wish I could've had more of it. The truth is, of course, that I'd just like to have those days (and my youth) back again.
DeleteI do not know what to make of school now as 50 years has gone by. I did not mind school but most of the teachers at the time were either grumpy or militant.None ever gave praise just dissatisfaction .One old boy in particular I am certain missed getting gassed during the war as he was weird and scared the pants off us kids. Oh well you cant bring the past back..My dear old Mother used to say that school was the best years of your life ..I think she must have read Tom Browns Schooldays too many times
ReplyDeleteMy parents used to say the same thing, LH - that I'd look back on my schooldays as the best years of my life. Naturally, at the time, I scoffed, but now I think there's a fair measure of truth in the saying. Not that I particularly loved my time at school, but I do look back on those specific years of my youth it represents, free from adult worries and responsibilities. They were the best years of my life sure enough.
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