More School Stories and Others

Enid Blyton's Malory Towers Books

Although I have only gotten the last 3 of a 6 book set, I read them anyway. The first ones, although on order, weren't available yet. I enjoyed them. The main character is a girl named Darrell (which is a surprising - to me - girl's name; I have only known boys to be named Darell). I am quite intrigued by the emphasis on learning about character. I had encountered the same type of thing in L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but I hadn't realized how widespread it was. There is a definite subtext in the books about learning to be a good person - acknowledging that it is as important as learning the subject matter. The most interesting thing about it is that the goal is voiced by the students. Sure, the head of the school gives them an occasional lecture, but the key thing is that the students subscribe to the idea. Nowadays that seems completely old-fashioned.

Example: Darrell evidently had quite a temper when she first came to the school and even in the upper forms, she still has to strive to control her temper. She lets it get out of control once when she was head of her form, and she was demoted for a while - a punishment she actually agrees with.

It is also interesting when the students are given the complete management of the end of term festival/play. They are told they can ask for adult help, but they proudly do nearly all of the work without help. I can't imagine such a thing nowadays. A caveat: I don't usually teach at the high school level, and the students who put this performance together are high school students. But my daughters went to high school not too long ago and, even though it was an unusually progressive high school, there was still a faculty member who was the official sponsor of every student performance and the major performances were organized and supervised by adults.

Another interesting thing is the term in which a major exam is taken. One girl, who is normally at the top of the class is, unbeknownst to herself, actually sick during the test and therefore fails the test. Two other girls who are poor students also do poorly on the test. But the test isn't the only deciding factor in whether the student goes to the next form. The top student is promoted and will study for and take the exam again in the next term that it is given. The student who failed is held back and the other, who barely passed, is allowed to go on. Promotion is not only not automatic, but it is also not seen as unusual for someone to be held back. The next year, there are two more girls in the class who have been in the form already a year. In fact, these two girls are given positions of authority, precisely because they already know the ropes, so to speak - an interesting concept. I can't imagine kids who failed a year in the United States being given positions of authority the following year.


This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard

I have to admit I just skimmed most of these books. I read the first part of each one and found them too depressing to read in their enterity. I guess I have a weak stomach.


The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner

While I am confessing to a weak stomach, I will also confess that I have not yet finished either one of the above books either. I plan to, but I have gotten to a place in each one where I know something bad is about to happen and I can't quite force myself to keep going through the bad part. What a chicken I am! I am actually listening to The Secret Life of Bees as an audiobook. I love the girl/woman who is reading it - Jenna Lamia.


The School at the Chalet by Elinor Brent-Dyer

This is another story in the British boarding school tradition, even though it is set in Austria. It is doubly interesting to me, because I spent a summer in Mayrhofen, Austria, at a Foreign Language League program, and the setting is nearby to there. The setting does effect the plot to some extent, as there is a much more international mix of students attending. Not only do we get the typical English girls, but we also get Austrians, French, and others. One of the main characters, though British, was actually raised in India. This is a likable book, very much akin to other girls books in this tradition.