Of School and Life…
As you get older you fall into the habit of reminiscing about your schooldays and similar long ago experiences. I was browsing Facebook last night, looking for a few groups to join when I stumbled across one for Poole Grammar School; a place where I spent 7 formative years, from the ages of 11 to 18. Like a previous post on Larry Norman, someone who left a lasting impression on my life, one of the teachers at that school also did so. His name was (Mr.) Chris Balgley. And I say it like that because all teachers were either addressed by ‘Sir’, ‘Mr. So and So’, or ‘Miss So and So’. Not Mr. Bagley. He encouraged us to call him by ‘Chris’ for most of the time. Certainly not when we were in Maths lessons, but certainly when we were in the 6th form (Junior and Senior grade High School equivalent). I learnt a lot about computers from Mr. Bagley. In fact I learnt everything I could from him. We even had ‘field trips’ to various computer centers to see the latest in technology (this was the mid-70’s so we’re talking mainframes here!). I remember with affection one particular trip to flight booking operations near Heathrow Airport. Just a handful of us went and I enjoyed the day immensely. Mr. Bagley seemed to me to be a young modern teacher compared to the other teachers we had at school. He tried very hard to ‘connect’ with some of us and certainly spent many extra hours out of school helping us with our computer studies. At least twice a week we would go to the local ‘technical college’ after school and do some programming, creating programs on paper tape. Later we actually got a modem in the school library and we were able to use it with permission either during lunch or after school. Mr. Bagley seemed the perfect teacher.
A few years ago I heard a rumor that he had been arrested on charges of ‘inappropriate behavior’ or something slightly worse. I was pretty shocked. Sure enough after investigating the ‘rumor’ I found the article in a local Poole newspaper and read the story. It made me think. Although this happened 28 years after I left Poole Grammar School, were there any tell-tale signs back then? Apparently it had been going on for a while so I am also thinking that maybe our class made up the early days; the innocent days, but nonetheless the time at which the seed was planted. It saddened me. It still saddens me. I was reminded of it all again yesterday as I browsed some posts written by ex-pupils.
It did get me to thinking however. When you’re young and you’re at school you don’t know anything about this kind of stuff. You don’t know what the tell-tale signs are. Heck, all you care about is getting through your exams. If a teacher seems to be helping you, you’re thankful for it. How can we protect our kids against anything untoward happening? Well, we can’t easily. We trust teachers. We trust all sorts of members of society. And so we should. If we went through life trusting no one it would be a very sad place indeed. We just need to be thankful that these kinds of incidents are few and far between.
Nothing ever untoward happened in my presence. In fact I would only ever have good things to say about Mr. Bagley. He made learning fun, was extremely knowledgeable and went that extra mile to help us succeed. Unfortunately my experiences are not the same as others. Others were scarred in very serious ways. That does sadden me. According to the newspaper article (linked here in case you want to read it), I guess he ought to be out of prison by about now, a 62 year old man whose life is a sad reflection of what it could have been. If there’s one lesson to learn in all this it’s that our whole life is something that is very much on show. Some people turn their life around from something bad, to something good. Others, as in this case, do the opposite. Which is better, and why? Who am I to judge? I’m trying to remember the positives, and even as I do, I am more deeply affected by the negatives. Is this another trait of being human?
Later…
