Telling Tales out of School

Oral Testimony and the (Re)construction of Lived Classroom Experience

Commercial classes were twice the size of technical classes, with roughly 30 students each. In the introductory year students did data processing on key-punching machines, as well as a lot of typing and clerical practice. Students in senior courses specialized in an area such as secretarial, accounting or marketing; these classes tended to have distinct gender profiles. The attitudes which encouraged a gender-based division of the student body found reflection in official statements, such as the following description of the accounting course:

This program is designed for boys who do not wish to specialize in Data Processing or Marketing. It can be taken by girls who are interested in Accounting but is not recommended for them because Office Practice has been excluded (HBBSS, 1970: 12).

In academic subjects, teachers sought to present material in ways which linked it to the students' practical experience; technical students in report writing - an English subject - spent most of their time writing very literal descriptions, creativity being discouraged (Heidenheim). The actual classroom practice might vary:

You soon learned that teachers, like a lot of professional people, they're basically a collection of individuals. You do what the Department regulations say you must do, and what the Board regulations say you must do. But you do it your way (McLagan).

In general, though, teachers in these classes opened each class with an example of new work, followed by an assignment which the students then worked on for the rest of the period.

Homework proved minimal.

In staff exchanges it was sort of agreed that, you know, if you can get them to do something in class don't expect - 'cause most of them had part-time jobs - don't expect an awful lot of homework (McLagan).

From 1953, when expansion included the first school pool in the city, Beal's physical education curriculum featured swimming. Not every student enjoyed the change from more routine classroom habits. A session in the swimming pool made it a lot harder to be on time for next class; girls especially found it difficult to "get rearranged" in time (Lee). One of the older teachers had an unusual way of teaching in the pool. She would "...walk over at the edge of the pool with a stick. And if you weren't lifting your elbows, she'd whack you (Shaw)."

In addition to their time in class, students enjoyed events such as concerts (Chuck Berry came in 1970), film festivals, and dances. They could participate on the yearbook staff, in one or more of the school's three bands, in a variety of school clubs and teams, or in "Martec" - the school shop - which grew out of a class project by the major marketing class.

The bands took trips every year to Florida, to give concerts and have a vacation in the sun. The band director, an American, came from the "marching band tradition"

We'd take a bus down there. It was a 24-hour trip. I remember one kid losing all his money playing poker on the back seat of the bus on the way down. There were kids that were stoned on the bus for the whole trip on the way down (Shaw).

Even at home in London, the band experience could be similarly lively:

Going to the auditorium wearing a canary-yellow jacket in front of all your peers and friends wasn't my idea of a good time. ... I found it embarrassing to put this horrid yellow - it was the brightest yellow jacket you've ever seen - black pants and go, and then some of the people in the band would goof off, and make horrific mistakes in front of the auditorium. The students all but threw candy wrappers at you (Shaw).

Students could also join sports teams, though this might create new barriers between peers - some students felt that the football program for instance, "...creates a social class within a school. Football team members stick together, think they're a big deal" (Ted Clark, quoted in LFP, 29 Mar. 1966).

Although a student had been suspended from school in September 1965 for having hair which reached his collar (LFP, 7 Sept. 1965), by the last years of the decade, long hair and beards for men and "frizzy hair" and miniskirts for girls were becoming the rule.

There were a lot of hippy types at Beal. I mean, if you didn't have hair to your shoulders, then you know, you weren't part of the crowd so to speak. It attracted that type (Shaw).

By contrast, though, students in the technology course - a first-year postsecondary course offered at the time at Beal - had to wear jackets and ties which further set them apart (Heidenheim).

The staff, with the exception of those running the technology course, expressed few concerns about student appearance; in 1969, the school dress code only banned Bermuda shorts, ultra-mini skirts, see-through blouses and slippers (The Word, 28 May 1969). In addition though, "certain people make it abundantly clear that pregnant girls are not wanted at Beal." (The Word, 21 Oct. 1970.)
Date of publication:
01/05/1994
Publisher:
Paper given at the Qualitative Research Conference, Waterloo, Canada, 1994
Co-author:
Christopher Anstead
Subject:
Life History
Available in:
English
Appears in: