Sketches from the Chalk Face

I first met Clyde Broster when I was teaching at Plumstead High School many years ago.  His wife, Pam, was on the staff and she had the enviable reputation of being a more than competent, highly capable and very caring Maths teacher.  Appropriately, these were the same qualities that I was to experience some two decades later when Clyde came to teach English on the Wynberg staff.

In 1982, the Brosters accompanied me on a tour of Europe which I organised primarily for my Latin classes – but we also opened it up to other pupils who were interested.  One of them, Ian Gilmour, soon found out that he should have done Latin when he came out of his hotel room in Rome in a manner reminiscent of Obelix, cursing the stupidity of all Romans.  ‘The taps which have C on them are all pour out scorching hot water,’ he complained to those of us who were patiently waiting for him in the hotel foyer.  His hand was wrapped in a cold and wet handkerchief for relief.

‘It seems that you should be taking them all for Latin lessons, Richie,’ said Clyde with his dry sense of humour. That is education at its best – I have no doubt that if there is one word of Latin which Ian now knows is that ‘calidus’ is the Latin word for hot – which was the ‘C’ on the taps!

Clyde of course revelled in this detail and for our remaining time in Rome, he continually suggested,  when we were wondering what to have for lunch, that we should give Ian a ‘calidus canis’ (literally ‘hot dog’….) for lunch.  Ian, still nursing his scalded hand, did not find this particularly funny.

That quiet, but sharp sense of humour is evident throughout the book Clyde has just published about his years in teaching:  Unswept Leaves:  A Teacher’s Life.  Using a technique perfected by James Herriot in ‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet’, he changes names marginally and then describes characters, events, incidents  and schools with the canny accuracy, empathetic understanding and the insight born of the wisdom of years.  Throughout the book is the quiet, but sharp humour which we have come to appreciate from him over the years.

Clyde Broster aka Chris Barker

His final seven years of teaching were spent at Wynberg Boys’ High School thinly disguised at Waterfield High School in his book.  That name certainly reflects an accurate description of the school campus after the wet winter we have just experienced!  He makes it very clear in his reminiscences that a sense of humour is essential in dealing with boys and he shows through his journey of memories that throughout his career, tense and potentially explosive incidents could be turned to the positive by seeing the humorous side of any story.

He describes an incident when he taught a Grade 10 English class.  In spite of repeated instructions to the class to leave every alternate line open so that he could write in the corrections, one boy, ‘Chippie’, handed in the written work without the requested open spaces.  He asked him to do it again.

The next day the work was handed in – still without the required spacing.  Clyde held up another piece of work which had been done according to his requirements and instructed Chippie for a third time to do it overnight.  Chippie nodded ‘like a solemn puppy’ and handed in the work the next day – again with continuous writing.

‘What – are – you –  trying – to – do?’ said Clyde between clenched teeth.

‘Just seeing how far I could go before you crack,’ came the cheerful response….

Only at a boys’ school!  Which mother will not recognise her son in that story?

Joy Goodwin aka Joyce Goodman

Joy Goodwin was not amused to see how she was portrayed as ‘Joyce Goodman’.  ‘How could he do that?’ she exclaimed to me with righteous indignation in the staffroom when I showed her where she starred in the book. ‘He knows how I hate the name Joyce…’.

Bill Creed aka Bob King

Bob King was the name assigned to our Biology teacher, Bill Creed. Clyde took great pleasure in recounting the story of a boy who exclaimed in Bill’s class:  ‘Sir! You are a legend! I am going to be telling my children about you!’

Bill was astounded and in his uniquely dispassionate style stared at the boy: ‘Good grief, boy.  Don’t tell me that you have plans to breed….’

Bill’s caustic sense of humour is legendary.  At Steve Doidge’s (class of 1990) 40th birthday party last week, Bill brought a sheaf of papers containing Steve’s marks at school.  ‘Just in case he gets a swollen head after all the praise-singing  tonight,’ he told me while pointing out what Steve’s Maths marks at school were.

‘He was wasted as a teacher,’ said Kevin Musikanth at the same party.  ‘Bill Creed should have been a stand-up comedian.’

One theme that runs throughout Unswept Leaves is how lasting a teacher’s casual comment, throwaway remark or chance observation can be.  Clyde cites numerous examples of meeting past pupils years after they have left school who say what effect a spontaneous aside had made in their lives.

I can personally vouch for how a passing comment is remembered for years, when I received a letter recently from a 1970’s Wynberg old boy who said how determined he was to leave school in Standard 7 because school life was too much for him.  He chanced to pass the then vice-principal, Ray Connellan, in the corridors who greeted him by name and asked how he was. He had no idea that Ray even knew of his existence - as he did not teach him. ‘That was a defining moment for me,’ he said in his letter to me.  ‘I was noticed as an individual. That changed my whole approach to school.’

Clyde says it best in his book:  Perhaps it is those things we do when we aren’t conscious of doing them that count the most.’

I enjoyed the obvious love of teaching and the opportunity of making a difference in the lives of his pupils which permeates every page of this 348 page book detailing incidents in Clyde’s 43 year career spanning eight schools. In recollecting all the incidents mentioned in the book, his non-judgemental approach was the no doubt the reason why his pupils were prepared to take him into their confidence so readily.

I loved the story of ‘Warner’ – a pupil in one of the schools in which he first taught.  Like all boys, Warner dreamed of hitting on a money-making scheme. As teachers we know that entrepreneurship and personal aggrandizement is close to the heart of most adolescents!

Warner had a sure –fire scheme to start his financial money-making career.  He wrote to a cigarette company (using the formal letter format which they had just been taught in class) complaining that the tobacco they used in their cigarettes was defective and far too loose.  He requested the company to replace the carton.  Surprisingly, this is what they duly did, adding a few extra cartons for goodwill and public relations.

Unfortunately success went to Warner’s head and he then proceeded to write to other cigarette  companies with the same grievance.  What he did not realise was that the parent company of all these cigarette companies was the same…..

He was duly summoned to the Headmaster’s office to answer the subsequent complaint from the Cigarette Company and this is where, for Clyde,  the Law of Unintended Consequences kicked in.  In his defence to his Headmaster, Warner had cited Clyde as a co-conspirator because he had shown him how to write a business letter!  So Clyde ended up on the Headmaster’s Mat as well.

Not surprisingly Clyde opted not to teach Warner the following year!

Writing under the pseudonym of Chris Baker, Clyde clearly shows the paradox of teaching. On the one hand are the joys and the rewards.  He describes the fun, the laughter and the humour.  We celebrate with him the pleasure and fulfilment when a pupil, sometimes years later, expresses appreciation.

The other side of the paradox, revealed in these sketches, is the frustration of unrealised potential in his pupils.  Home circumstances and personal traumas stunted the growth of so many of them.  Clyde’s career took him to eight of the country’s top schools - all of whom are tackling the topic of motivating adolescents in their own way with varying degrees of success.  However, he leaves us with the elephant in the room – what about all the other schools in our country?  How are they coping with unrealised potential?

Are there other Clyde Brosters out there?  Schoolmasters in the true sense of the word – raising the bar for our boys academically in the classroom, challenging them on the sportsfield, widening their cultural horizons in film studies and theatre visits and thus by embracing all areas of school life, ensuring that they turn out to be better human beings.

Those of us who have taught for some time, will recognise similar events and incidents in our own careers.  However, this is a book for anyone who loves the teaching profession – especially those who are new in the game.  They will benefit greatly.

Write to bakerchris61@gmail.com for your copy.  It is R130 well spent.

In the course of reading the book, you could say the same as those boys whom he took to see the Oscar winning ‘To Sir with Love’ all those years ago. ‘What a load of rubbish,’ they said to him cheerfully as they came out of the cinema.

After reading this book, we now know not to take boys’ comments too seriously.

Teamwork. Precision. Perfection.

W (Bill) Lennox

Vincent Maphai was unequivocal. ‘We had no facilities at my township school all those years ago,’ he told 74 engrossed delegates, including myself, at the Allan Gray Conference at Henley on Klip last week, ‘ and we definitely had no text books. But what we did have was a committed and passionate teacher…’

Now many years later, Dr Vincent Maphai is the recipient of numerous awards from overseas universities including Harvard, Stanford and Princeton. He is currently Executive Director of SAB and on the boards of innumerable companies.

I heard a similar comment a few days after this which was made at our recent reunion luncheon of Cadet Band Drum Majors. David Richardson (1962) had flown out from Canada to propose the toast to Major Bill Lennox who resuscitated the Wynberg Cadet Band in 1951. For the next thirty years of his teaching at Wynberg, Bill Lennox inspired generations of boys to reach heights which they did not believe they were capable of achieving.

Dr Vincent Maphai

Appointed as a Maths teacher to the school, he took the Cadet Band to unprecedented levels and the results proved that they were a band without equal. From 1953 to their eventual disbanding in 1993, they won the Western Province Cadet Band Competition an unprecedented thirty times. The 1985 Drum Major, Ian Wilkinson says : ‘We had the best team in the school….we were mates with each other….friendships were forged that have endured to this day.’

 This quote is taken from the interesting booklet entitled ‘Teamwork, Precision, Perfection: The Wynberg Cadet Band’*. It was written by a previous Deputy Headmaster of the school, Ray Connellan assisted by Mickey Lumb of the Old Boys’ Union. Ray remarked in his Foreword that he wanted ‘to record this remarkable history of the Wynberg Cadet Band before it disappeared into the mists of time…… Bill Lennox needed to be recognised for his massive contribution.’

 He wrote to a number of past Drum Majors asking for their memories of the band. All these have been recorded faithfully in the school museum with some of the anecdotes finding their way into his booklet.

Vincent Maphai would nod his head in approval if he saw the depth of feeling and appreciation shown by some of the past Drum Majors when they wrote about their beloved Bill (Shorty) Lennox:

Hennie du Plessis (1958): He was a tremendous influence on my life in more ways than one. He taught us discipline. He demanded complete dedication. Second best was not in his vocabulary.

David Richardson (1962): Bill Lennox taught me more than mathematics or how to play the bugle. He taught me deep lessons about people; about values; about life.

Denver Coleman (1960): Every year he used to offer some so-called ‘breekers’ a place in the band. He usually managed to turn all of them into useful citizens and good team players.

Bruce Probyn (1966): I will remember with enormous fondness his patience, understanding and genuine concern he showed for every single one of us.

Brian Rookledge (1968): He had a fantastic knack of understanding all the boys he was teaching. His encouragement made you believe that you could do anything he was asking you to achieve. His principles and teachings have helped me enormously in my working life.

At the opening of the Cape Town Festival

Stephen Fay remembered that Bill Lennox introduced the Drummers’ Salute into Wynberg’s repertoire. It was appropriate that the luncheon on Founders’ Day this year had two side-drummers (Gary Beckman and James Hilbert) from the 1987 band who were invited back by Johan van Rooyen to give a loud rendition of the Drummers’ Salute. This summonsed the invited Drum Majors into the Bill Bowden Pavilion for lunch. Long standing neighbours must have thought that they were in a time-warp as their drumming echoed off the Wynberg Hill.

The memories and the reminiscences continued for the next few hours. The booklet was declared officially launched as was the Cadet Band Wall in the school museum. These are fitting tributes to a Golden Era in Wynberg’s history.

Many of the stories in the booklet were read out eliciting hoots of laughter.

Val Sutcliffe, mother of Grant (Drum Major 1976) wrote that she remembered Grant marching them through puddles of water, his reasoning being that if they could do that without flinching, then they could do anything!

Grant himself recollects marching down the streets of Paarl behind Paarl Girls’ High drum majorettes. Acknowledging that the ‘view was too good to be true’, he lost concentration on his primary job and it was only when he realised that the music was getting fainter did he glance behind him to see that the rest of the band was unable to keep up!

Andre Badenhorst, Drum Major of 1963, suffered from a similar affliction. He recounted that it was tradition to march back from the Wynberg Military Camp passed the Girls’ School. They would receive a warm and noisy congratulatory welcome from all the girls on the pavement. To seal the adulation, it was customary for the Drum Major to throw his mace into the air while marching, catch it and march on triumphantly. The 1963 Drum Major, to his undying and unforgettable embarrassment, dropped the baton in front of hundreds of girls and their parents…..

'Band Mothers' show the way ...

Helen Wilkinson, who took on the duty of Drum Major’s mother on two occasions, recollected that the post-competition band braais were always memorable events. In one year, the mothers decided to dress in the uniform of their sons and march up and down playing the same instruments. ‘We wanted to show them exactly how we thought it should be done!’

Knowing boys as I do, I doubt that many boys hung around to witness their mothers cavorting in their son’s uniforms…

The role of the mothers was a huge factor in the ongoing success of the bands. Steph Yates, Chairlady in 1989, sent out a note to all mothers inviting them to the staff room on a Saturday afternoon for an ‘ironing demonstration’. The mothers were given pages of detailed ironing instructions.

Here is one point for ironing of pants:

‘At the waistband at the back of the pants, using centre of seam as a starting point, measure 1.3 cm on either side i.e. 2.6 cm’s in all, mark with a pin and that is where your back crease commences. Hold pants by front creases, shake to straighten and back crease will fall into place NOTING 2.6 gap at waistband.’

Brian Wilkinson, whose own son is currently a Gap Year Student in Scotland, did not remember the process fondly. ‘Come the Big Day and my mother insisted on dressing me. Pins would suddenly appear in places you would not think possible….’

Members of the 1947 band still recall that the Wynberg band was chosen to lead the Royal Procession of King George V1 from Wynberg station to Youngsfield. The current Queen was Princess Elizabeth back then and Fritz Bing when he sat next to her at Lords as Manager of the Proteas in 1994, hopefully reminded her of her Wynberg connections!

Bill Lennox and many other band masters gave hundreds of boys over the years a glimpse of something greater than themselves. He showed them there are no short cuts to success. He changed lives.

Dr Maphai, just like your teacher all those years ago, Bill Lennox was also an inspiration to a multitude of Wynberg boys.

*Copies of this booklet are available at the school museum. Past Band Members who wish to obtain a booklet or who wish to contribute to the Cadet Band Display at the museum, or add to the memories, may contact Hugh Rowles or Ray Connellan in the Old Boys’ Office.