I taught at Montgomery Of Alamein School from January 1966 till July 1988.
For several years I took the top exam classes in English Language and Literature, but I have always considered that my major role in the field of education came in another direction.
On day the headmaster, Dennis Beacham, called me into his office to discuss an important matter.
He was concerned that our first year intake were coming from schools in a number of villages where the practice was to have just one teacher per class and they were finding it confusing to enter a system where each subject was taught by a different teacher, resulting in each boy having as many as nine or ten different teachers each week, which was very confusing for many.
What the head wanted to know was if I could compose a single syllabus from the separate subjects of English, History, Geography and Divinity. This syllabus was to be called Humanities and would occupy one third of the timetable and be taught by one teacher.
I have had a quiet sense of pride that I accepted the head’s challenge and became one of the very first to teach Humanities in the entire country. Each year the fresh intake of boys seemed to find it easier to enter secondary schooling and the parents gave us great support.
Now, at the ripe old age of 81 I look back with fondness on those years.
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A similar thing happened when Southampton Medical School opened. Instead of teaching Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology etc. we were asked to teach “The Heart”. That is the anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, development, diseases and hypertension all had to be dealt with in the same short course. This was hard for some lecturers who were ultra-specialists in muscle or epidemiology. We called it Systems Teaching, cardiovascular system, nervous system, immune system etc. It worked well and now many medical schools have taken up this method.
Knowledge does not sit easily into specialist subject categories. There was a time when silicon was chemistry and had nothing to do with electronics. There was a time when the study of fungus suddenly became important in medicine.
When I was at my son’s age, we learned about the capitals of countries, and remembered data of population, height of Mount Kinabalu, and the name of every single stop of a train line, though we never travelled. Today my son learned about Development – how multi-national countries operate in third word countries, and how sweat shops are run so that we get cheap clothes in the UK. He is actually learning about geography, history, culture…in a geography lesson. I’m pretty impressed by the quality and depth of the subject that he learns. Today, teachers could incorporate educational videos in lesson, and connect students from MEDC to understand lives in a LEDC. (Example: BBC – GCSE Bitesize: Development indicators.)
Stumbled across this page…….and brought some great memories back.
Brian Green was my first year tutor, and taught me all through my 5 years at Monty – Humananties, English and English literature. Still mention Mr Green and Mr Ellis as two great teachers I had …….and how much I remember from their lessons – although not enough from Cider from Rosie or Tale of two Cities to pass my O level in English lit. It’s a shame kids these days don’t have education like these gentleman delivered.
Remember both gents came from Norfolk – Terrington St Clement.
Thank you for the memories.
Dear Andy,
Thank you very much for your message.
I’ll pass on your message to Brian and his daughter for you. I see them at the church. Brian has told me lots of stories about the old school. His memory is astonishing.
Thank you and all the best to you.
I too stumbled across this page whilst reminiscing and Googling “Montgomery of Alamein School”! It’s been really interesting reading some of Brian Green’s memories about the school and indeed some of his other articles here, as he was my 1st year tutor at the school in 1982, form 1BSG if I remember correctly. I very much enjoyed my time at the school and got on very well with Brian. Please do pass on my best regards to Brian and if he hasn’t already found it, there is a Montgomery of Alamein School “group” on Facebook which he might be interested in: Montgomery of Alamein School.
Best regards, Steve Williment
Steve,
I’ve passed on your message to Brian via his daughter. Brian goes to our parish church and still writes in the parish magazines.
All the best
Janet
Dad finds it really touching to read these fond memories of students he taught some 30 odd years ago! It doesn’t seem possible that he has been retired for 28 years now.
Many thanks, Steve, for your kind words. We went on the ‘Monty’ Facebook group. It was quite amusing reading a school report dad had written for one young man. I could see his sense of humour coming through! Happy days …