In the town of Windsor, you will find Windsor Castle and Eton College, two very British landmarks. The school is an exclusive private boarding school with over a thousand boys, and ONLY boys, attending. At Eton you will have a house master, who acts as “your father, your priest and your God”. There is also a house-maid, who seems to be the only female individual at the school. Of course, she is a servant.
Class seems to be an important issue, if you are born into it, but maybe even more how much money your family has. If you donate an extensive lot of money, you will be accepted and can make up your own rules, just like Lord Hellebore. Another important element is the school uniform. It is described as a very stiff upper-lip outfit; black trousers, white shirt, waistcoat, black tie, an Eton jacket, a top hat and black boots. The school even has its own language and James is trying hard to learn the different terms. The interesting part is that “Glossary of Eton Expressions” actually does exist. Eton College is a world that wants to exclude people that do not fit in to their rules and values – whether it is done by clothing, language, money or how good of a sportsman you are.
At Eton College traditions and rules are very important and it is not always clear why. Pritpal tells James; “You will soon learn that there are a lot of traditions here at Eton whose meaning has long since been lost. Nobody knows why we do most of the things we do. We just do.” (p. 22f). The younger boys also have to do errands and chores for the older boys and it seems to be an unspoken rule that you do not report people, even if they have done something wrong. It does not matter if it is your friend or your enemy – you do not tell. Basically, the school has got their own set of rules. This reminds me of the book “Ondskan” by Jan Guillou, who also has its setting at a private boarding school, where a bullying manner is accepted, and which we have just recently found out via the media, still exist. It is like a motto; “We have done this for over a hundred years and it has worked, so why question it?”
So – as long as you
have class (or money), the correct gender and act after the moral values of
Eton College, I am sure you will have a pleasant stay…
After having read the book with pupils it is an golden opportunity to discuss the Bitish school system. The system with public and comprehensive schools always captivates the pupils. The fact that, as Linda, points out, Eton is almost pre-historical in our eyes with their values and clothes. Yes, we have Lundsbrunn where we try to copy posh public school but we are still very far from schools like Eton.
SvaraRaderaI think one inevitably has to continue with the British class system where we are nothing near in Sweden, yet, although we are catching up, unfortunately.
Hi! During many of years we have read a lot about the "special traditions and rules" at those schools.Not so far ago there was a lot of publicity about a private school here in Sweden. The question is: what can we do? At school most of us work hard with those issues as bullying. We are highlightning these questions when we are using different texts and novels,we are talking in groups and so on. We have specialteams who is taking care if something happens at school. There is still a long way to go...
SvaraRaderaI agree with you Mona, that it is still a long way to go. Now at least, these things are coming up to the surface here in Sweden, where pupils actually report the system at these exclusive private schools, because they think it is wrong. That is a start.
SvaraRaderaIt won't be easy to change this as a teacher, although we have to keep on trying, since it somehow is supported by the society. It doesn't really matter how good you are at things, you will still be thought of / treated as an outsider by the upper class. As long as you have money or the right name you can get away with a lot of stuff. I think it will take generations before we have got rid of the class-thinking, if we ever do. Unfortunately it might get worse because of e.g. segregation, and since the forunate ones keep scratching eachothers back. But if you could become a hero like James Bond you just might make it.:-)
SvaraRaderaSince hero stories has dominated children stories for a long time it is not strange that values have been passing on to younger generations. And I´m not that surprised to learn that the main words still exist today (at least at Eton College..): true manhood, courage, determination and white male dominance.
SvaraRaderaHeroes can be many different things ... and humans of all times has needed heroes to identify themselves to. Some time ago I read that the Vatican state congratulated The Simpsons at their 20th anniversary, and claimed that Homer Simpson was the hero of today and that the cartoon's combination of humour and focus on exstential and spiritual questions was the role model of today. At first it seemed strange, but thinking about it I realized it has some truth.
SvaraRaderaAsking my son he defined a hero to be "an admired person who does good things ... a role model ... a superman". The dictionary says a hero to be "an admireable person who does great deads, and by that wins honour and glory. He sacfrifices himself for his coubtry, his master, his God or for the lady of his heart". The word comes from Greek. Often heroes'ancestry are at least partly divine. Many of the ancient heroes would today rather be considered war criminals or maniacs. Within literature hero referes to the main character of a text whose deads and actions unfolds the red thread of the story. With a change estetics a hero can also refer to a person who fails, or finds him/herself in tragic circumstances, are evil or passive or does not experience anything exciting. A hero needs some human errors in his character, in order for the reader to be able to identify with him/her. The ideal hero is strong, smart, selfsacrifying, but also loving, and has a set goal. Early heroes were Odysseus, Beowolf, Roland and not to forget Don Quijote of La Mancha. All warriors of their time.
James Bond is neither the first nor the last hero from Britain, but I assume in the future he will be looked back at, as one of the greater of the 20th century.
Being such a popular and wellknown hero from the films I think young people can identify themselves in some respects to Young Bond more than Adult Bond (eg bullying situation,dying relatives, first love, making friends and so on). And also to learn the importance of teenage years and experiences from those years.
To discuss the rules at Eton and how the students there follow them without questioning them, though they no longer make sense, could be a way to make the students aware of the dangers of obeying orders just because the person giving the order is superior to you. It’s common that children and youngsters, who get in trouble for doing stupid, bad, mean things to others have acted on orders from a friend. When our pupils study the Second World War they often question how people could be so cruel and people who are brought to the Hague Tribunal claim innocence arguing they were just following orders.
SvaraRaderaI am not sure Linda that boys has a "pleasant stay" at Eton.Attending a school like Eton for a young boy (some started at the age of six)is not pleasant.Being often forced, and abruptely separated from your home and family as a child is never a enviable experience.
SvaraRaderaThe moral values they preach sounds good but in the closed community are other informal rules in the strict hierarchy. Bullying and sometimes caning is still "allowed" among the boys due to that sneaking is forbidden.
This is not a suitable place for a young boy but to cope and "survive" mentally most of them slowly adapt and accept the informal rules.
Barbro, I totally agree with you. The last sentence of my blog entry was supposed to have a touch of satire, but maybe it does not work so well in writing... I definitely think that it is NOT easy to attend a school like Eton, where you are expected to follow rules and values without questioning them. I also think that Higson maybe chose Eton as James´s school for just that reason - to question something that is not working as it should. Like I write in my blog entry, James is one of the students questioning the rules and I think it would be interesting to see how that works out in the following books about young James Bond.
Radera