Radley College - Public School Update BBC documentary (1987)

the of God see I will shall my soul in my weal and it was here at Radley College 8 years ago that the BBC made the documentary series public school then as now it was a school for the sons of those parents who want to give their children not just a particular kind of education but a certain indefinable advantage in life the kind of Advantage it's worth paying good money for so what happened to the boys who 8 years ago went to and appeared in public school the series started at the start of term each new term brings new parents and new children for them it's the beginning of a considerable 5-year investment jmh love Gro is one of this term's crop of stigs or new boys he's about to take up residence in his new home SE social later that evening James lve and the other new boys assemble in Chapel for a pep talk from the Headmaster or Warden a pep talk they're supposed to remember for the rest of their lives some of you are blessed with great brains and some of you maybe not that doesn't matter tens what matters is how hard you're prepared to try and if you do happen to be blessed with a good brain and some of you are very fortunate in that respect much more fortunate than me then use it to the full and I want you people to build up one habit on that side the habit of work it's not a habit which is terribly common these days but I want you to acquire that habit one thing I attach enormous importance to is the courtesies we show each other it matters to me very much that you people should be able to look someone in the eye and smile and say good morning or good afternoon or good night remember that and it matters to me all the little details it matters to me that you should not speak to people with your hands in your pockets it matters says to me that you're smart well turned out that you've got polished shoes that you've got your top button done up all these little details and I wonder how many of you have clean fingernails these tiny little things make something that lasts because you come to school for one thing really to acquire the right habits for life James Love grve Is Now 21 I think what the warden was telling us then and seeing it on television program the other day um with this the benefit of hindsight and that Detachment you can get from watching it for seven years uh was that we were taught the right habits for public school I didn't know what the right habits for life are I think habits is possibly the wrong word but there were certain things that were instilled in you at Radley and they do stick with you for most of your life I think it does a pretty good job at teaching you the right habits for Success what are they um I'm not quite sure um what whatever they are I think they've been relatively well instilled in me right habits no I I learned a lot from Radley there's no doubt about that I think you make your own habits up I don't think uh school or any other institution can teach you the right habits or wrong habits of life I think that's up to your conscience and your instinct the thing about going to public school is it gives you an incredible self-confidence you have to be you have to be very self-confident to survive you have to build up um the ability to to adapt to situations and and respond to people um it really does it teaches you to be quite go getting which I think is great it's it works on the rewards system um which is really a sort of microcosm of how real life works and there's always this carrot before the donkey at school it's prizes or something like that and in real life it's it's more sort of financially oriented um and I think that's very good I think you're typical public school boy is obviously seen it's often seen as overconfident but I don't think it's overconfidence I think it's just extreme self-confidence and un Assurance which is which is a good thing this self-confidence is achieved not just by following the warden's advice but by total immersion in a whole new world of experience which despite the considerable fees paid by the parents isn't always pleasurable for the children James lve is now studying at Oxford he is in Radley's terms a success the first ambition of private education is to supply successful candidates to universities in general and in particular to Oxford just 5 miles up the road from Bradley and to Cambridge Donald Payne there was never much doubt that Donald would come to Cambridge but his private education was free eight years ago he won the top academic scholarship to Radley congratulations you won the top scholarship at rad to to yep Su yes Su or whatever it's called yes Char good well done now I think that probably such early achievement does have its drawbacks to start with um my first term everybody expected you know everything of me and I found that a bit difficult but it it didn't really bother me hello Dad hello my um you know that I've won the top scholarship oh I have yeah the top scholarship yep R yep full fees when did you hear just now where are you in Inky study oh many many many congratulations I'm over the was as it got Progressive with you know as I've been there for longer and longer um I probably unconsciously the pressure built up more and more it wasn't just work because in the first few years I've been you know very successful at sport and at well as well um and just the whole time people are expecting me to succeed perhaps pressure is the price you pay for privilege but academic scholarships don't provide the only opportunity for cut prise private education here at Fitz William College Cambridge is another radan who gained an assisted Place Tom Johnson the top music scholar of 1980 I found it quite difficult at Radley to fit in other things as well as music and there's pressure to do music and pressure to do Sport and it's quite hard to fit it all in and come out of it with some exam I mean you are under an obligation they're paying you so much money to do it for per year um perhaps that takes a lot of the spontaneity out of it the obligation to play music is not one that Tom feels required to fulfill anymore he'd rather play rugby I'm not doing any music now as I've told you but that's basically because I'm quite busy enough here as it is and I can do music and things when I can't do Sport and the like you know later on in life and there's only so many hours in one day music scholarships are competitively fought for David rer Ken heir to Lord tenham was one of the candidates he also won a scholarship but his hobby now is not music but sculpture I don't know whether it's improved now or not certain when I was there I my general feeling was the music was um was quite poor really I'm not I'm I think the first impression or the thing that stands out in my mind most of all was um was the apathy of many people who were at the school um towards music but I'm having said that I enjoyed the music lessons and I had two very good teachers but um I didn't feel they were perhaps I felt they were enthusiastic as teachers as far as music was for Radley but I didn't feel they were backed up so much by by the general system Jonathan duret also gained a music scholarship to the school his father was so Keen he should attend but now Jonathan is studying to be a doctor I wasn't left alone to to feel that I wanted to play music I I had to play music and I did play music and I went through and that's what I did but I never really got down to it and studied hard at my music I do want him to have a boarding school education like his um sister and his Elder Brothers in his case since he's very good at the violin I do want him to have expert teaching and a concentrated teaching and I want him to have a good musical education as well as the ordinary academic education and this I think he can only obtain in a boarding school and almost certainly a public school there were so many things that different things that were going on and that you encouraged to do Sports and music and what have you that in a way you were distracted from anything that you particularly interested in and couldn't spend enough time doing that and nurturing a real interest in that and and and producing the spontaneity of of work that you need to become really brilliant at something I think um you become mediocre at a lot of things at English private schools it seems the Arts are often overshadowed by other activities perhaps to compensate Radley has just built a new concert in my time I doubt if we've produced more than 10 professional musicians and there's a paradox in that because we're always talking about excellence and the pursuit of Excellence we're always at the same time ringing our hands and saying we ask too much of the boys they're doing too many things they never do anything well it's an interesting argument that what you generally find is that the outstanding boys are doing a vast number of things outstandingly well and getting very tired in the process um our job is really getting the less well motivated rather idler boy off his backside to go and search for that area in which he can do something that is recognizably excellent but in answer to your original question I can't deny that very often we're doing so many different things that we're doing none of them as well as we would like to do I don't mind the happy amateur you used a phrase the other day that we constantly use here the Renaissance Man uh the man who can join in in everything uh artistic and creative and cultural uh and perhaps uh not be absolutely the CPS in any of those particular things I have no regrets about that uh those are the interesting people in life eight years ago Radley's most prominent renaissance man was David Vanos writer M of the College academic the members of the C and copy to every Trust address make sure you get a reply okay I me athlete full pressure are you ready and political activist you say here I think that there are better things to spend 50,000 on than a golf course I thought you you were giving them a questionnaire oh no I was as I was just making a statement I was asking whether they agree with that or not um I mean the only thing is that you know as well as I do that I mean democracy or it doesn't really work in a place like this well I mean it's uh it doesn't set out to be a democratic institution and therefore sets out to be um an ordinary School suppose it taught me a a lasting dislike of centralized organizations which is why ever since then I've always worked in very small firms David has already worked for several small firms with varying degrees of success he's now at a fine London address albeit in the basement working to encourage industrial sponsorship in the Arts Christmas the trouble is that you know it perhaps not absolutely everything taught at public school is helpful place all qualities it creates in you a natural respect for authority that depending on the kind of business you're in or whatever career you choose to follow can either be a help or a hindrance it did surprise me that several of the several of my contemporaries not the um I wanted to ask you about was hostile to the authority in the school subsequently went on and joined further authoritarian structure um I'm thinking of a couple of individuals who shortly after leaving the school which they always uh maintained a steady resistance te then went and joined the army the Army in fact invests heavily in trying to attract the product of private education Radley also has a combined Cadet Force compulsory until a boy has passed his proficiency a quarter of the school is in the Army section and another quarter is split between the Navy and the r F some like the CCF but Hugo Chapman certainly does not I I hate the CCF and I repeat hate because I really love it Mr silk was always going on about how one should respect Masters because they were Masters and I that's what the basic jobble I always had because I I don't think one should respect Masters because their masters one should respect them because they won your respect and a lot of the Masters at L I don't think we you know necessarily worthy of respect nonetheless it was Hugo Chapman's art teacher who fostered his love of Fine Art and led him despite his youthful non-conformity to work here in the center of the London art establishment I wish I could go somewhere where I could meet different people with different views different backgrounds they had different ideas about things I think people who here tend to forget that that they'll be branded for the rest yeah I think that's one of the main things I don't like I don't like being involved with something I despise and should be St seeing ones on the screen again it is an uncomfortable experience I think it's slightly uncomfortable cuz I think 16 or whenever I was and is a slightly awkward age one's opinions are rather unformed I mean I feel probably the same thing so I'd Express them in rather more hopefully subtle ways and not be quite so spoken but I still feel basically I am the same person bastard are you your legs inside no I'm out of but you have holding on to it yeah you meant to hold on to it but I just hi against it exactly don't leave the Cano don't the can go but your St this it's hard than everybody else what did it fail to teach me what 99% of the rest of of the world was like really one was only my my feelings today but um that one was cut off from other sort of people of one's own age I still feel I still feel strongly about two senior boys were featured in the series James Ed and rert C coming to the end of their school careers their eyes were already fixed upon their Futures James Edie is hoping to get into Cambridge if he is to do so he will first need to get good grades in his three a levels English French and history James got three a grades went to Cambridge and is now practicing as a solicitor in the ins of court in London okay get up Ed's friend rert gther is hoping to get into Oxford he too will need to get good grades in his a levels which are also English French and history rert didn't manage to get into Oxford and after prep school and public school now finds himself in the Royal Scots Dron guards another all male environment well if you're trying to ask you whether whether I'm a puff then he anwers no um yes I went to all boy prep school and public school and I see ABS nothing wrong with that nothing wrong with that at all because you know you got all the rest of your life to do all the things you really want to do I think it's probably a very popular misconception about the army that we sit all day with men etc etc yes I work in an all male environment but up till very recently say say did most other people and if you go down to the darker recesses of use example again of the city or to um 90% of the of the um for example engineering factories in this country you'll be working in nor man environment yes I live in a um in a mess with all sorts of with all all the other guys but I also live in a mess precisely many people tell me the whole time but the door isn't locked and I've got a motor car I got an A dress book and he has all the toys the modern Army can give a growing boy for rert the Army was in fact a way out of an even more conventional job friends of mine were spending hours and hours and hours filling out these long application forms for jobs in the city and all that that sort of thing and in many respects it was like sort of seemed to be like a whirpool taking me down into the City and it was something I I really didn't want to do I think to be honest it's it's a a wellp poool that Radley deliberately feeds into Radley as far as I was concerned I know it's that Dennis silk did say it once or twice was almost of the middle of the road aimed to be a middle of the road school there's no chance there very little chance of there ever being a a prime minister coming from Radley as and Dennis Sil will probably be the first admited or anyone truly exceptional coming from Radley but I don't think it aims at that Radley I think aims at producing a decent one of a better expression a decent chat um and that suits the City suits the city very well has candidate for the national front in Radley's mock election it's perhaps not so surprising that Rupert didn't feel that theity was the place for him let it go down we have need for a strong government one with courage and above all patriotism patriotism but Bradley also fielded a candidate for the workers revolutionary party Tim Huxley citizen comrades Britain has seen the major political parties and our political system there was a hole drag it down for years the time is right for revolution Tim Huxley now works in the city when I when I was at Radley I mean I was a bit of a a revolutionary I suppose in my in my thinking I didn't go around burning the place down but I I was a bit radical in my politics that was more often than not a reaction against some of these boys who were there who seem to have been fully paid up members of the Oxford and bucking conservative Club since the day they were conceived and were not prepared to look at anywhere outside the the rules of cism but looking back I mean 79 the summer of 79 that was when the conservative government came to power and I haven't done badly under them uh you know I now have a a good job I got a I got an education out of them you know degree at University which didn't cost me a penny uh and uh I have a good job and I have my own house uh I've done all right under thatcherism and also uh capitalism is a lot more fun than socialism it's a common complaint against English education in general and English private education in particular that the teaching of more or less useless subjects only equips people for more or less useless jobs we were hared at the headmaster's conference by Carelli Barnet about this that we're teaching too much Classics um too many totally theoretical subjects which have no application out in the job market I suppose uh we might be open to that sort of criticism but I think much less so although I still don't feel that schools should be centers of vocational training I think they are centers of Mind training and I still feel that an intelligent boy who has for instance done Latin and Greek particular if he's managed to do Greek verses will be able to do anything because he's got a trained mind that can actually apply itself to any problem that comes up the relative merits of academic or vocational education were largely lost on the boys themselves especially at school dances when other subjects entirely seem to occupy their minds at first things progress normally but by 11:30 when the dance ends it will all be very different most people who were there when they leave there's one thing they hav haven't got a clue about how to handle women uh and uh certainly some of my lady friends would still say that I I have that I believe it single single single sex education is not a good thing it's not healthy and it's not real it fails for an obvious reason to teach her anything about women because there's none of them there if I was Dennis silk now I I'd take girls because I think the tide has moved so far that way and nowadays women are in every aspect of life and the chances are that you will work with women that I think it's a it's a significant failing not to have them there I haven't found rad Leons too backward when it came to girls um they have a very Lively social life in the holidays I always feel they come back to school for a bit of a rest on that front um I think that uh I may find myself in a minority but I'm totally unrepentant about that Bradley 2 is unrepentant and growing a pace the golf course against which David Vanos campaigned is now in situ and the school has recently opened a new Sports Hall and a new swimming pool after all a public school is just a business it needs to attract new customers and make sure its old products become customers in the future if you're asking whether I'll send any children that I have to Radley I've thought about this quite a lot the answer is not automatically if I had a son now of the right age I would send him to Radley I would definitely send if I can afford to send him to public school I would definitely send him to public school and probably to Radley I wouldn't send one of my children to Bradley providing I could afford it I would certainly consider sending my my son into private education possibly to Radley yes I think I would send them to a public school um or private school I'm not quite sure I'd send them to Radley looking back on it what you could have done is you could have given us all a big check when we were 21 or you could have sent us all to Radley uh the bottom line is I think he got a far better uh return on his investment by spending the money on our education and I would to that extent I would send my sons to Radley if I had any children but it's no small investment private education at Bradley from 13 to 18 would now cost a parent a total of £30,000 what is it that they think they're buying at such a price right habits for life for

Channel: Kate Middleton

Views: 22,087

Keywords: A Very English Education, Radley, Public School, Private School

Id: P9ee2xhaiKQ

Length: 30min 14sec (1814 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 25 2014