Blame it on the Amygdalae!

‘When is the next Blog, Sir?’ a boy asked me at school last week.

‘Don’t put me under pressure,’ I replied.  ‘It is usually when the mood takes me.  Perhaps if you do an Afrikaans or English essay every week, I will do a blog every week as well.’

He didn’t think that was a good idea.

Since I have acquired a fancy mobile phone, I have developed the habit of reading News24 on my phone in bed before tackling the new day.  On reading the news this morning (Friday 27 April), I felt a definite blog coming on….

I was motivated by a report by a DA spokesmen, Helen Lamoela, who commenting on the recent rape of a pre-teen girl, said:  We need to interrogate the concept of masculinity and re-frame the role of boys and men so that they can become model men, fathers, husbands, brothers and uncles.

One of the (understandable) tragedies of our current South African education system is the fixation on Matric Results and the resultant judging of schools by a once-off set of exams.  In an endeavour to ‘raise standards’ in schools, the pressure from above to conform to this charade is immense.  Schools’ reputations can be made or broken by their ability to insist on their pupils being able to memorise – or to regurgitate a syllabus.  So now we have about 65% of the pupils (that is, of those who actually write the matric exam) who have mastered - to some degree - the art of answering exam questions.

Some years ago, I taught James Taylor in my 1995 matric Latin class.  He was one of the more able academic students I have taught in my career.  To my intense displeasure at the time – as he was clearly an A++ student – he insisted on not learning his setwork which we had spent an inordinate amount of time dissecting in our classes.  ‘I want to treat it as unseen in the final exam,’ he explained to my intense incredulity, ‘it is more of a challenge that way…’

If I remember correctly, he just missed his Subject Distinction for Latin, but no matter, as he went on to soar at UCT and I have no doubt that he is soaring in whatever area of life has the privilege of his acute and perceptive mind.

Are we in schools, as Helen Lamoela implies above, producing enquiring minds, curious individuals, caring people?  Is the system not forcing teachers to concentrate on right brain activities?  Or is the education system, as Steve Jobs is reported as saying in his superb biography, producing accomplished users of apps, but not enough designers and inventors of apps?

Now that is a challenge for those of us in education.

All of us involved in the education of boys know the challenges which those walnut-like amygdalae play in the development of young men.  That prefrontal cortex controlling the emotions plays havoc with the decision making of adolescent boys. Current studies of the brain show that the connections between the amygdala and the cognitive brain are not fully developed until the age of 23 in men…..How many parents of teenage boys over the ages have not prayed for that process to be accelerated?

The Saturday Evening Post: April 1911

There is not a teacher anywhere who has not had some version of this situation where two boys end up in front of them with tear-stained faces and bruised and bloody cheeks.  ‘And now?’ you say.

‘He tripped me,’ one of them will say eventually, ‘so I hit him.’

‘Why?’ you ask. ‘Aren’t you two meant to be friends?’

‘Oh, yes,’ they both hasten to assure you with alacrity.

 Experienced teachers will then know better than to ask why the fight occurred.  Those undeveloped communication wires connecting the brain with the amygdala will take the blame....  And so begins the long process of counselling with these two boys.

The location of the Amygdalae

Aren’t principals of girls’ schools lucky, Mrs Harding?  According to the experts, you don’t have amygdala problems at WGHS.  That is why I continue to maintain vociferously that Headmasters of Boys’ Schools deserve to be paid more!

Research is showing that it IS possible to hasten that process of developing the communication wiring.  Reading; debating;  learning a music instrument; travel; different and varied experiences; undertaking service activities  -  all of these promote the type of sensitive and empathetic men that Helen Lamoela is so keen that this country turns out.

Of course, research is also showing that development of the adolescent male brain is retarded by alcohol, nicotine, drug usage etc  -  but that is the subject of a separate blog.  However, could that explain the actions of those men who raped a pre-teen girl?

Where better to enhance these skills than in schools?  And so, Mr President, why is it not a key feature of government policy to ensure quality teachers are coming into the system?  Teachers who realise that there is more to a successful school than regurgitating syllabi?  Teachers who realise the Big Picture in that they are helping to develop those ‘model men’ mentioned above which are so badly wanted?  Teachers who understand that they have the potential to forge a genuine Rainbow Nation? Teachers who who instinctively know that ongoing threats do not work  and understand that the amygdalae of teenage boys are easily fired up by emotional situations?

Let’s get our priorities right in this country.  Make no mistake about it – there will be more Malema’s, more corruption, more rapes of pre-teen girls until the realisation hits home that producing ‘model men’ begins firstly in the home.  After that, we at schools,  with quality teachers, can build on that foundation so that we can play our role in taking this new democracy of ours, 18 years old today, to claim its place proudly among the community of nations.

What parent of a teenage boy does not recognise this statement from a medical journal: Teenage boys possess a notoriously short fuse in their amygdala activation:  they tend to activate a primal stress response in social situations that would probably be more satisfactorily resolved if they counted to 10 before responding….

Perhaps every male in this country should carry that note around with them!

In the meantime, my advice to parents regarding their teenage sons?   That 23^rd birthday is not that far away…  Keep up that flailing sense of humour  -  and blame his behaviour  on his amygdalae!

Let the Season Begin

‘Richardson, I really do not think that rugby is your calling….’ So remarked my u15D coach, Rex Pennington, later Rector of Michaelhouse, to me at half time in a match vs DF Malan many years ago. I was playing wing and the opposition soon summed up the fact that the undernourished stick insect opposite them was the weak link. They hoisted an up and under in my direction and my nearby teammates quickly bailed. I took the only decision which any sensible 14-year-old Rice Krispie Eater would take in the face of a pack of 90 kilogramme bearded (?) dervishes bearing down on him. I allowed the ball to bounce.

Fortunately, the ball then squirted into touch – and we had the throw-in. I saw disappointment in the eyes of the Dervishes but for the moment, my honour and physical safety were both intact. Seeing the inevitable writing on the wall, I volunteered the following season to play hockey where a modicum of speed and a smidgen of ball skills set me up for a lifetime of happy memories. Since then, I have played, coached and enjoyed hockey at a number of levels for many years (decades?) on four different continents.

The Pre-Match Team Talk

Consequently, it was with alacrity that I accepted Mr Van Schalkwyk’s invitation to look after the u16D hockey side against Rondebosch on Saturday. Here was my chance to re-establish my love affair with a game which has given me much joy over the years. I had hung up my coaching accoutrements when I took over as Headmaster and have spent the intervening years advising and encouraging (the coaches called it interfering…) anyone who was polite enough to listen.

My fall from umpiring grace at Wynberg had taken place when Larry Moser, then coach of the 3rd team, asked me a few years ago to umpire his game on our Astro. Unfortunately with me umpiring, his team lost, having finished with only nine men on the field - two players having been sent off! One Wynberg player had sworn not so subtly under his breath while another had sailed too close to the truth by querying, rather too volubly, my knowledge of the rules. ‘Thanks for that,’ said Mr Moser to me after the game and no Wynberg coach has asked me to umpire since then.

On Saturday, every single member of the 16D team reported to me at the appointed time. We even had two extras who wanted a game. Wonderful. We sorted out positions and went through a short corner routine. ‘Who is serving?’ I asked. The boys all looked at one another, flummoxed.

Perfect pass from Ulrich Haupfleisch

‘This is not tennis,’ volunteered one boy tentatively. Lesson number one for me. It is no longer called ‘serving’ when a boy hits out the short corner. Michael Rosenthal volunteered to do the honours. He started off by pushing the ball out. ‘No, no,’ I said. ‘This is grass – you must hit it.’ I took his stick and crouched over the ball to show him. It was then that the realisation hit me that this could only result in disaster. That shoulder has not really properly recovered from last year’s shoulder operation. Better to leave the boys with the impression that I could have hit the ball out smoothly and fast if I had really wanted to. I gave the stick back.

Daniel van Hoff, an u16A player, came up to me shortly after that. ‘I am your umpire,’ he said. I was disappointed – obviously Mr Moser had got to him. Anyway, he did a great job allowing me to stand on the touch line and ring the rolling changes to give everyone a reasonable time on the park. At half time, as we were seated in the goal area, he offered to take over from me and chat to the boys and give them some advice. My fall from grace was now complete….

Does no-one trust me to do anything on the hockey field anymore?

It reminded me of an opening match of a season many years ago when I was coaching the u14A’s. It was in the days before hockey was an acceptable sport at our feeder schools so we had to start our u14’s from scratch. We were playing Fairmont away and half time saw us 0 – 5 down. I was walking on at half time, when one of our parents ran up to me. ‘I am a first league hockey player,’ he said. ‘I know that you are only a teacher – perhaps I can give your boys a few tips?’

Obviously nothing has changed with regard to peoples’ opinion of my coaching over the years.

This u16D team were not nearly as bad as that u14A side. We were 2 – 1 down at half time and very much in the game. The Rondebosch second goal was a corker and smacked in with real venom. Darren Niland in goal instinctively took evasive action and one of our reserves on the side suggested that Darren should also have pads on the back of his legs. Easy to talk like that when you are not in goal yourself…

I once played in goals in a house match at school – canvass cricket pads, with the tops flopping down over the knees, and one cricket batting glove (remember those spiked gloves?) were my sole protection. Never again – nearly drove me back to the wing in rugby. My admiration for goalkeepers is immense.

Aaron Mylie clearing the ball from our goalmouth

Our solitary goal in this u16D match was somewhat controversial. There was a goal melee with the keeper lying on the ball with sticks, divots, grass and sand flying everywhere. ‘Short corner!’ I shouted helpfully at the Rondebosch umpire. Maybe I still have some influence somewhere, because he opted to award the goal instead. ‘That didn’t go over the line,’ said a Rondebosch parent who clearly thought that I was putting undue pressure on the schoolboy umpire. I thought that it was astute umpiring.

Good thing that u16D games don’t have TV replays….

Keenan Wagner and Joshua Jack had fine games on their respective wings and sent balls criss-crossing the Rondebosch goal-mouth. After another near miss of flailing Wynberg sticks, I asked Chris Wren-Sergeant, the Rondebosch coach, if we couldn’t claim a ‘half goal’ for every near miss. According to my reckoning, the score would then be 6 half goals + 1 genuine (?) goal to their two genuine goals. The Rondebosch answer was to hammer in a humdinger with a minute to go.

The records will show that Rondebosch won 3 – 1, but those of us who watched know that Wynberg (with the half goals) were really the winner 4 – 3. It was a great morning which was rounded off by a gutsy and passionate display by the first team rugby later. I thoroughly enjoyed our Saturday morning visit to the ‘Bosch!

I was able to re-live my rugby career with my own son a few years back. He was playing for Westerford 3rd XV against Somerset College and came off the field with a smile on his face and panting with exertion. ‘How did you enjoy that?’ I asked him.

‘It was great, Dad,’ he enthused. ‘I nearly did a tackle.’

Isn’t schoolboy sport wonderful?

Sparing the Rod

One of my more pleasurable pursuits at the beginning of every year is to take various groups of Grade 8's on a history tour around their new school - emphasising the traditions, the values and the Brand of this South African institution which has been operating continuously on Wynberg Hill for 171 years.

I always end up in the Oude Wijnberg Museum at Silverhurst gravitating towards the display cabinet in the Tasker Room which holds educational relics of the past - amongst which are an assortment of canes and punishment books.  It is always interesting to see how many of the Grade 8's have not the faintest idea of the function of that bamboo stick and on being told, there is always at least one 13year old know-all who boldly proclaims that he does not think it 'could be that sore!'

I invariably have to fight back the temptation of enhancing his education...

I was somewhat taken aback when one boy this year matter- of- factly volunteered the information that he knew exactly what a cane was and that it was used 'every day' at his Junior School.

This set me thinking about the role of corporal punishment. I remember the story which Old Boy, Chris Hyland loves to tell.  He was selected in his Grade 10 year to take part in the Cape Schools'  Cricket Week in Queenstown in 1974. Long after lights out in the hostel in which they were staying, the Wynberg boys were re- living the day's play no doubt with noisy appeals, comments and shots.

In walked an irate duty housemaster with cane in hand. He duly bent over every Wynberg player and gave him a hiding. The Wynberg boys were then quiet with the other teams no doubt taking their cue from the measures which  had been handed out to the Wynberg team.  Peace was now allowed to reign permitting the housemaster, himself an experienced veteran of many provincial cricket tours, to procure some sleep.

If we as parents and teachers are honest with ourselves, I bet that there are many who are now covertly applauding!

There is no doubt that Power Ruled for all of us now over the age of 35 or so. In retrospect, did it really change behaviour? Generations of Wynberg Old Boys will recall the pride with which they logged the hidings they received on the reverse sides of their school ties.  These would be later proudly shown off as a Badge of Honour. Is there any Old Boy reading this who still has such a tie in his cupboard which he can donate to the museum?

The only time now that I really look back with vague nostalgia at corporal punishment is round about Valedictory time when (some) matrics behave as if they are 18 going on 8. Every year sees some unfortunate matrics (which inevitably mean their parents as well) have their invitations to the Final Ceremony withdrawn for repeated thoughtless and crass behaviour.  Now those boys have lost out on an important Rite of Passage.  Wouldn't a hiding have saved all this heartache?

I remember well the day the news was conveyed to schools that corporal punishment was outlawed. It was just before eight one morning in 1995 when the then Headmaster of Wynberg, Bruce Probyn, arrived at my office door brandishing the fax bearing the announcement. 'I will go with you to tell Ray,' I said with relish, looking forward to seeing his face. Ray Connellan was the Senior Deputy in charge of Discipline.

Ray's door was shut - only to open a few moments later and an unlucky Bubbles Jardine emerge. Knowing Bubbles, I doubt that he had learnt any lesson from that hiding but he certainly learnt the value of 15 seconds!  He has now gone into WBHS history as The Last Wynberg Boy To Be Given a Hiding.

Cecilia Lashlie, a New Zealand author, in her outstanding book  ‘He’ll be okay:  Helping Adolescent Boys become Good Men’  expresses the view that we, as adults, should be applying more consequences rather than punishments. If your son, as an 8-year-old, leaves his lunch on the kitchen table, harden your heart and don't rush off to school with it. Let him go hungry for the day - he will learn more from that.  If from an early age, he understands that there are consequences for every decision, then he will learn a valuable lesson which may save his life one day when his mates urge him to put his foot on the accelerator and take on the orange light...

There is no doubt that both in Business and Society, the time of Leadership based on Power is now passed. This is also being reflected in schools where the emphasis is on building relationships. That is what our Wynberg Way is all about - not about punishing but about steering boys in the right direction. We, at school, encourage our boys to realise that every decision carries a consequence. This consequence invariably puts the obligation on adults - teachers and parents - to work together in the important business of developing boys into quality young men.

Cecilia Lashlie talks about a fence which adults must build alongside the adolescent's road through teenagerhood. The prime reason for this fence should be to keep our sons safe as they negotiate the Road of Life.

My experience of teenage boys is that many parents feel that it would be more expedient if they persuaded Eskom to run the national electricity grid through this fence!